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LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

University  of  California 

Mrs.  SARAH  P.  WALSWORTH. 

Received  October,  i8g4. 
Accessions  No^if^jf:^.     Class  No. 


V 


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<^■. 


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FOOTSTEPS  OF  OUR  FOREFATHERS 


DESCRIBING    LOCALITIES,  AND    PORTRAYING  PERSONAGES 

AND   EVENTS  CONSPICUOUS  IN  THE  STRUGGLES 

FOR  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY. 


BY   JAMES    G.    MIALL. 


HAMPDES  MANOR,  THE  SEAT   OF  THE  PATRIOT  HAMPDEX. 


8Cf){rtas»ix  Illustrations  bg  ^neUs,  from  Sftetc^^es  bg  tf)e  author, 

BNQEAVED    BY    DICKE8,    LONDON. 


^ 


BOSTON: 
GOULD  AND  LINCOLN, 

^^^^    59  WASHING'tON   STREET. 

•^^^  1854. 

■  0?  SER 


■7I?!?b:^. 


^^' 


>^'^ 


PHESS  op  GEO.  0.  BAITI), 

WOOD   CUT  AND  BOOK  PBINIBB, 

COBKOILL,    BOSTOX 


VVT^ 


lUHIYBRSITY] 
PREFACE 


The  design  of  the  following  ^vork  is  tx)  exhibit,  in  a  form 
as  little  repi\lsive  as  the  nature  of  the  subject  will  allow, 
some  of  the  phenomena  of  Religious  Intolerance,  especially 
as  it  has  been  displayed  in  a  Protestant  form,  and  to  indicate 
the  mistaken  principle  in  which  these  melancholy  results 
have  had  their  origin. 

It  has  been  no  part  of  the  author's  aim  to  advocate  any 
distinctive  form  of  doctrine  or  polity ;  but  rather  to  show 
how  any  religious  system,  whether  Episcopal,  Presbyterian 
or  Congregational,  may  become  vitiated  and  perverted  by  its 
alliance  with  the  powers  of  the  state,  and  by  the  assump- 
tion, exclusiveness  and  worldly  pride,  which  such  a  con- 
nection invariably  engenders. 


IV  PREFACE. 

The  author  will  rejoice  if  his  work  shall  produce,  espec- 
ially in  the  minds  of  the  young,  a  juster  estimate  of  the 
value  of  that  spiritual  freedom  for  which  their  ancestors 
longed  J  suitered,  and  even  died  ;  though  they  did  not  alwaj'-s 
clearly  understand  the  true  nature  of  that  liberty  which 
alone  could  have  met  their  wants,  and  which,  in  the  degree 
in  which  it  exists,  is,  for  the  most  part,  the  measure  of  the 
religious  prosperity,  and  of  the  moral  and  social  well-being, 
of  nations. 

To  those  friends  who  have  aided  in  such  inquiries  as 
were  important  to  the  writer's  object, —  who  have  opened 
Fources  of  information,  or  yielded  to  him  their  generous 
hospitality  during  the  progress  of  his  search, — cordial  thanks 
are  offered. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER    I. 

PAGB 

THE  LIGHT  OF   A  DARK  AGE, 9 


CHAPTER     II. 
WRITHINGS  OP  THE   DOWN-TRODDEN, 89 

CHAPTER    III. 

CONTESTS  WITH  DESPOTISM, IS 

CHAPTER    IV. 

PIONEERS  OF  LIBERTY, 101 

CHAPTER    V. 

AIMINGS  AT  THE  IMPOSSIBLE 141 


CHAPTER    VT. 

THE  OBOWNLESS    MONARCH, '. 1T6 

I'* 


TI  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    VII. 

PAGi- 

THE  RETURNING  TIDE, 223 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE  PRICE  OF  RELIGIOUS  CONVICTIONS, 261 

CHAPTER    IX. 

"CHRISrS  CROWN   AND   COVENANT," 286 

CHAPTER    X. 

APPEARING    IN  TRUE  COLORS, 318 

CHAPTER    XI. 

HIGH  CHURCH, 880 

CHAPTER     XII. 

THE  WILL  mNUS  THE  POWER, 343 


Sllustrotiflns. 


PAGB 
HAMPDEN   MANOE,   THE  SEAT   OF  THE   PATRIOT  HAMPDEN, 1 

LUTTERWORTH    (wICUF'S   CHUBCH), 9 

CHAIR  IN   WHICH   THE   REFORMER  DIED, 31 

LUTTERWOETH    BEIDQE THE    STREAM    INTO   WHICH    HIS    BONES   WERE 

THROWN, 34 

GATEWAY   OF  HAMPTON   COURT  PALACE, 39 

HAMPTON   COUET   PALACE, 41 

TAG-SIMILE   OF   THE   AUTOGRAPH   OF   KINO   JAMES   1 52 

LEICESTER'S  HOSPITAL,  WAEWICK  —  RESIDENCE  OF   CAETWRIGHT,  .     ,     .     67 

ANCIENT  COUET   OF   STAR-CHAMBER, 78 

WHITEHALL,   AS   IT  EXISTED   IN   1746, 88 

HAMPDEN      CHURCH  —  WITH      THE      FUNERAL      PROCESSION      OF      JOHN 

HAMPDEN, 133 

HAMPDEN   HOUSE  —  RESIDENCE   OF   JOHN   HAMPDEN, 139 

KIMBOLTON,   HUNTS  —  BECTOET   OF   PHILIP  NYE, 144 

JEEU8ALEM    CHAMBEE,    WESTMINSTEE  —  SCENE    OF    THE    ASSEMBLY    OP 

DIVINES, 162 

JENNY   GEDDES'    CUTTY-STOOL, 175 

HUNTINGTON — BIRTH-PLACE   OF   CROMWELL, 176 


VIII  ILLUvSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 
FAC-SIMILK   OF   CKOMWELL'S   BAPTISMAL  REGISTRY, 181 

■"      IIINCHINBROOK — SEAT   OF   CROMWELL's   ANCESTORS, 182 

REPUTED   BARN   OF   CROMWELL,   ST.    IVES',   HUNTS, 188 

KIDDERMINSTER  —  WITH   THE  CHURCH   OF   BAXTER,        224 

BAXTER'S   ANCIENT  PULPIT,   KIDDERMINSTER, 226 

OLD   SAVOY SCENE   OF   THE    "  SAYOY   CONFERENCE,"    ' 237 

GATEWAY  OF  LANCASTER  CASTLE PRISON-HOUSE  OF  EARLY  QUAKERS,   .  261 

LANCASTER   CASTLE PLACE   OF   CONFINEMENT   OF    GEORGE   FOX,      .     .     .  264 

CARLISLE   CASTLE  —  A  MEMORABLE   PLACE   OF   INCARCERATION,  ....  279 

COVENANTERS'   BANNER, 285 

BOTHWELL  BRIGG, 287 

THE   "BRIDLE,"   AN   INSTRUMENT  OF   TORTURE, 296 

THE   SOLITARY   PRISON-ISLAND   IN   THE   FRITH   OF   FORTH, 311 

BASS   ROCK THE   CAGE   OF   THE   COVENANTERS, 313 

THUMBSCREWS INSTRUJIENTS   OF   TORTURE, 317 

CHURCH   AT  ELSTOW,    BEDFORDSHIRE WHERE   BUNYAN   WAS   BORN,       .318 

STEPNEY  MEETING-HOUSE,    LONDON, 329 

MATTHEW  henry's   MEETING-HOUSE,    CHESTER, 340 

DODDRIDGE'S  MONUMENT,   LISBON, 343 

DODDRIDGE'S   HOUSE,    NORTHAMPTON, 349 

OLD     FOUNDERY,     CITY-ROAD,    LONDON  —  SCENE     OF    WESLEY's     FIRST 

LABORS, 352 


'^  "^0?  Tue 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE    LIGHT    OF   A    DARK   AGE. 

**  Fame's  lasting  register 
Shall  leave  Lis  name  enrolled  aa  great  as  those 
AVho  at  Philippi  for  their  country  fell." 

Linm  to  the  Meinory  of  A.  Marvell,  IG78. 


WICLIF'S   CHURCH   AT   LUTTERWORTH. 


No  part  of  England  is  more  rich  in  historical  associations  than 
its  midland  counties.  Though  neither  statues  nor  obelisks  mark 
the  spots  where  our  ancestors  struggled  for  freedom  or  for  truth, 
the  scenes  are  sacred ;  and  Buckinghamshire,  Huntingdonshire, 
Northamptonshire  and  Leicestershire,  offer  points  not  less  memo- 
rable than  were  Plat?ea,  Marathon  and  Thermopyla3,  in  Grecian 
story.     Our  first  journev  with  the  reader  shall  be  taken  to  the 


10  THE    LIGHT   OF    A    DARK    AGE. 

last  of  the  counties  we  have  named,  and  to  the  secluded,  yet  not 
altogether  inconsiderable,  town  of  Lutterworth.  The  traveller  is 
here  in  the  centre  of  England.  Not  far  distant  is  Leicester,  where 
Richard  III.  buckled  on  his  armor  for  the  battle  of  Bosworth,  —  a 
conflict  which  delivered  the  country  from  a  cruel  tyrant  and  a  dis- 
puted succession ;  and  which,  ending  the  wars  of  the  Roses,  intro- 
duced a  new  era.  In  the  same  town  Wolsey  breathed  out  his 
troubled  spirit,  when  Protestantism,  headed  by  Anne  Boleyn, 
became  for  the  moment  triumphant,  and  the  cardinal  began  to 
stand  in  the  way  of  his  master.  There,  too,  John  Bunyan's  life 
was  spared,  when  an  accidental  circumstance  substituted  a  comrade 
in  his  place ;  and  so  saved  the  future  saint  from  death,  that  he 
might  devote  a  rich  genius  to  the  cause  of  religion  and  of  truth. 
Not  far  from  Lutterworth,  in  the  village  of  Thurcaston,  Hugh 
Latimer  was  born.  And  on  another  side  of  the  town  stand  the 
height  and  village  of  Naseby,  memorable  for  that  great  conflict 
which  displayed  the  military  prowess  of  Cromwell,  changed  the 
fortunes  of  a  great  empire,  and  proved  the  ruin  of  a  despotic 
tyrant  and  a  perjured  prince. 

The  scenery  about  Lutterworth  is  not  of  the  highest  order. 
But  the  country,  though  flat,  is  fertile ;  consisting  of  rich,  level 
grazing  land,  interspersed  with  good  trees.  If,  in  visiting  the 
town,  the  traveller  shall  expect  many  memorials  of  the  past,  he 
will  be  disappointed;  few  antiquarian  curiosities  remain.  Five 
centuries  are,  in  truth,  a  huge  period  in  the  history  of  man,  and 
most  human  structures  crumble  down  before  it.  "  The  lines  where 
beauty  lingers"  are  altogether  swept  away,  so  far  as  the  town 
itself  is  concerned ;  and  for  the  characteristic  buildings  of  the 
period  most  in  his  mind,  —  for  the  sharp  gables  with  overhanging 
stories,  and  every  rich  adornment  of  carved  wood  and  florid  plas- 
ter, —  the  visitant  must  draw  upon  his  imagination.  Instead  of 
these,  he  will  find  only  buildings  constructed  with  the  most  math- 
ematical precision,  and  of  the  reddest  of  red  brick.  Lutterworth 
is,  in  short,  a  quiet,  well-to-do-looking  town,  exhibiting  every- 
where modern  neatness  and  respectability,  but  totally  unlike  what 


THE    LIGHT    OF    A    DAKK    AGE.  11 

it  must  have  been  in  1350 ;  when,  with  more  picturesqueness,  it 
must  have  contained  much  squalid  poverty,  wretched  ventilation, 
and  deplorable  agriculture.  On  the  whole,  though  with  some 
restiveness,  'sye  prefer  the  place  as  it  is. 

But  Lutterworth  contains  one  building  worth  all  the  rest ;  hav- 
ing, it  is  true,  little  about  it  likely  to  prove  attractive  to  a  stranger, 
but  full  of  interest  when  one  is  aware  that  this  is  the  ancient  church 
of  John  Wiclif.  —  The  name  of  the  reformer  was  spelt  in  many 
different  ways,  like  those  of  Shakespear,  Eawleigh  and  others, 
and  perhaps  was  not  written  uniformly  even  by  its  possessor.  We 
choose  the  form  in  which  the  name  appears  when  the  reformer  was 
appointed  papal  delegate,  in  1374. 

A  grave,  quiet  sanctity,  renders  the  old  church  at  Lutterworth 
attractive,  and  even  imposing.  The  walls  are  rent,  patched,  and 
buttressed.  The  windows,  dim  with  age,  admit  a  struggling  and 
murky  light.  The  old  porch  seems  to  have  been  constructed  for 
the  days  when  marriages  were  not  yet  celebrated  within  ecclesias- 
tical edifices,  but  at  their  entrance.  On  the  rectory  side  of  the 
building,  a  low  portal,  which  seems  specially  appropriated  to  the 
officiating  clergyman,  receives  interest  from  the  thought  that  by  it, 
probably,  Wiclif  passed  to  the  performance  of  his  sacred  duties. 
Though  close  to  the  town,  the  grave-yard  is  quiet  and  secluded ; 
and  when,  towards  evening,  the  overhanging  trees  are  casting 
their  thick  shadows  over  the  venerable  pile,  the  gloom  and  silence 
answer  well  to  the  dusky  memories  of  the  period  which  rendbrs 
the  scene  memorable. 

The  exterior  of  the  church  is,  however,  its  greatest  attraction  ; 
the  interior  is  scarcely  worthy  of  its  associations.  A  slovenly, 
semi-Grecian,  but  altogether  barbaric  hand,  has  been  busy  at  the 
processes  of  restoration,  —  removing,  repairing  and  enlarging,  Wic- 
lif's  pulpit,  and  leaving  the  interior  of  the  church  in  a  state  of 
miserable  and  most  unmeaning  transformation.  But  the  vestry 
still  retains  the  table  on  which  the  reformer  was  once  wont  to  dis- 
pense a  primitive  hospitality,  —  a  fine  piece  of  old  oak ;  and  the 
vestment  which  he  wore  when  officiating  at  the  altar  is  still  pre- 


12  THE    LIGHT    OF   A    DARK    AGE. 

served,  embroidered  with  angels,  and  now  shut  up  in  a  glass  case, 
like  some  relics  of  saints  in  continental  churches.  The  first  view 
of  this  popish  habiliment  is  somewhat  startling ;  for  the  world  has 
learned  almost  to  regard  Wiclif  as  a  Protestant,  —  which  he  was 
in  fact,  but  not  then  in  name ;  and,  as  one  looks  upon  the  time 
worn  garment,  it  becomes  invested  with  very  peculiar  associations, 
reminding  us  of  him  who  has  grown  too  large  for  his  system,  but 
is  still  obliged  to  keep  within  its  narrow  limits,  and  compelling  us 
to  pity  the  contest  —  the  terrible  contest  —  going  on  still,  in  many 
a  mind,  conscientious  as  Wiclif 's  was,  between  the  claims  of  posi- 
tion on  the  one  hand,  and  of  convictions  on  the  other.  Those 
dingy  rafters,  too,  over  head,  look  as  if  they  might  once  have 
echoed  to  the  reformer's  voice.  But  this  is  rendered  somewhat 
doubtful  by  the  fact  that,  in  1703,  a  violent  storm  blew  down  the 
ancient  spire  —  a  tapering  and  very  lofty  cone,  surmounted  by  a 
ball  —  into  i\e  nave,  leaving  it  to  be  replaced  by  a  structure  bear- 
ing no  kind  of  resemblance  to  the  original  erection.  Though 
somewhat  out  of  place,  it  may  illustrate  one  peculiarity  of  a  state 
church  —  its  want  of  ready  adjustment  to  circumstances  as  they 
arise  —  to  observe  that  the  necessary  repairs  consequent  on  this 
accident  involved  the  then  existing  rector  —  the  Rev.  H.  Mer- 
iton  —  in  a  prolonged  chancery  suit.  He  had  collected  money  by 
brief,  for  the  purpose  of  repairing  the  edifice,  which  the  high  wind 
had  nearly  destroyed.  But,  though  personally  above  suspicion, 
he  had  applied  part  of  that  money  to  the  repairing  of  the  church  ; 
a  condition  "  not  in  the  bond."  The  troubles  incident  on  this  lit- 
igation shortened  the  poor  man's  life.^ 

To  this  living  of  Lutterworth,  John  de  Wiclif,  so  called  from 
the  place  of  his  birth,  on  the  banks  of  the  Tees,  Yorkshire,  was 
presented  by  the  crown  in  the  year  1375,  when  about  fifty  years 
of  age.  He  held  the  rectory  about  ten  years.  The  services  which 
led  to  his  appointment  may  be  briefly  told. 

Wiclif,  one  of  the  best  scholars  of  his  time,  had  attained  great 
distinction  as  the  most  advanced  man  in  the  University  of  Oxford 

*  Nichols*  Hist,  and  Ant.  of  Leicestershire. 


THE    LIGHT    OF    A    DARK    AGE.  13 

(which  has  not  always  been  in  arrear  of  the  age).  He  had  signal- 
ized himself  by  the  offensive  war  he  had  carried  on,  in  behalf  of 
that  university,  against  the  mendicant  friars.  The  fashion  of 
monkery,  which  had  been  extremely  popular  during  the  reigns  of 
the  Anglo-Norman  kings,  had  been  for  some  time  on  the  wane ; 
and  the  disgust  excited  by  the  venality  and  licentiousness  of  the 
religious  houses  had  called  into  existence  the  begging  orders,  who, 
abjuring  monastic  establishments,  professed  poverty,  and,  as  wan- 
dering priests,  subsisted  on  the  alms  of  the  devout.  Yielding,  in 
their  turn,  however,  to  the  temptations  of  the  times,  these  wan- 
dering friars  soon  began  to  wallow  in  the  mire  of  corruption  which 
had  swallowed  up  their  predecessors.  These  friars  were  divided 
into  four  principal  orders,  and  indeed  were,  by  the  constitutioiis 
of  Pope  Gregory  X.,  limited  to  that  number:  the  Dominicans^ 
established  by  St.  Dominic,  founder  of  the  Inquisition ;  the  Frari' 
ciscan  or  Gray  friars^  established  by  St.  Francis  of  Assisa,  called 
also  Cordeliers  from  the  knotted  cord  which  they  wore  suspended 
from  their  girdles;  the  Carmelites  or  White  friars,  and  the 
Augustinian  or  Austin  friars.  Many  cities  were  divided  and 
mapped  out  among  these  four  orders,  each  of  which  was  licensed 
to  beg  within  a  given  district ;  whence  the  mendicants  were  called 
"  limitours."  The  doctrine  of  these  friars  was,  that  the  Founder 
of  the  Christian  religion  was  himself  a  beggar,  and  that  mendi- 
cancy was  a  gospel  ordinance.  Every  reader  of  Milton  is  familiar 
with  the  passage  which  Bentley  would  fain  have  expunged  as  an 
interpolation. 

*'  Embryos  and  idiots,  eremites  and  friars 

White,  black  and  gray,  with  all  their  trumpery. 
*  *  *  Then  might  ye  see 

Cowls,  hoods  and  habits,  with  their  wearers  tossed 

And  fluttered  into  rags  ;  then  reliques,  beads. 

Indulgences,  dispenses,  pardons,  bulls, 

The  sport  of  winds  :  all  these,  upwhirled  aloft. 

Fly  o'er  the  backside  of  the  world  far  off. 

Into  a  limbo  large  and  broad,  since  called 

The  paradise  of  fools. ' '  —  Par.  Lost,  ui. 

0?  THE     '^^ 

I7BRSIT7] 


%& 


'■^^"jyo\^>?;- 


14  THE    LIGHT   OF   A    DARK    AGE. 

Such  was  the  popularity  of  these  mendicants,  that  the  confes- 
sionals of  the  ordinary  clergy  were  at  one  time  almost  forsaken, 
whilst  penitents  of  all  classes  crowded  for  absolution  to  these 
religious  drones.     Chaucer  has  thus  painted  one  of  them ; 

**  For  he  had  power  of  confession, 
As  said  himself,  more  than  a  curate. 
For  of  this  order  he  was  licenciate. 
Full  swetely  heard  he  confession, 
And  pleasant  was  his  absolution  ; 
He  was  an  easy  man  to  give  penance, 
And  well  be  knew  to  have  a  good  pittance.* 

*       '         *  *  * 

Therefore,  instead  of  weeping  and  prayers, 
Men  might  give  money  to  the  poor  friars." 

Prol.  to  Cant  Talcs. 

The  powers  and  privileges  claimed  by  some  of  these  orders  were 
enormous.  Salvation,  they  said,  wa.s  certain  to  those  who  died 
invested  with  the  scapulary  of  their  order.  It  was  usual  for  per- 
sons of  infirm  health,  or  at  the  point  of  death,  to  seek  admission 
among  the  mendicants,  and  to  desire  that  their  bodies  might  be 
interred  in  the  old  garments  of  the  friars,  or  at  least  near  some  of 
the  order,  that  thus  they  might  be  safe  at  last.  St.  Eloy  gave  the 
following  advice  to  his  parishioners :  "  Redeem  your  souls  from 
destruction  while  you  have  the  means  in  your  power.  Oflfer  pres- 
ents and  titles  to  churchmen ;  come  more  frequently  to  church  ; 
humbly  implore  the  patronage  of  the  saints  ;  for,  if  you  do  these 
things,  you  may  come  with  security  in  the  day  of  retribution  to 
the  tribunal  of  the  Eternal  Judge,  and  say,  Give  to  us,  0  Lord, 
for  we  have  given  to  Thee."t 

Among  the  mendicant  friare,  the  Franciscans  surpassed  all 
others  in  the  privileges  they  claimed,  holding  their  powers  inde- 
pendently of  the  bishops,  and  possessing  unlimited  authority  to 
grant  indulgences  as  a  compensation  for  their  vows  of  poverty. 
Their  authority  was  principally  appealed  to  in  all  questions  affect- 

•  Plenty  of  provisioxu.  t  Moshcim. 


THE   LIGHT   OF   A   DARK    AGE.  15 

ing  the  See  of  Kome.  But  eack  of  these  orders  waged  incessant 
warfare  with  the  rest,  and  the  contests  between  the  Franciscans 
and  Dominicans  were  most  exasperated.  Nor  were  the  members 
of  the  same  fraternity  at  peace  among  themselves.  In  the  mean 
time,  however,  they  all  lived  by  continual  benevolences,  and  often 
by  gross  exactions.  Chaucer's  lines  may  be  accepted  as  a  general 
portrait  of  the  class : 

"  Specially,  above  everything, 

Excited  he  the  people  in  his  preaching 

To  trentals,*  and  to  give  for  God's  sake 

Wherewith  men  might  holy  houses  make. 
*  *  .  *  * 

And  when  this  friar  had  said  all  his  intent 

With  qici  cum  Patre^^  forth  his  way  he  went. 

Where  folks  in  church  had  given  what  he  list. 

He  went  his  way,  no  longer  would  he  rest, 

With  scrip  and  tipped  staff,  uplifted  high. 

In  every  house  began  to  pore  and  pry, 

And  begged  meal  and  cheese,  or  else  corn. 

The  fellow  had  a  staff  tipped  with  horn. 

And  wrote  always  the  names  as  he  stood 

Of  all  folk  that  gave  him  any  good. 

Aside  that  he  would  for  him  pray, 
*  Give  U5  a  bushel  wheat,  or  meal,  or  rye, 

A  holy  cake,  or  a  piece  of  cheese,  ., 

Or  else  what  you  will,  we  may  not  choose. 

A  God's  halfpenny,  or  a  mass  penny, 

Or  give  us  of  your  bran  if  you  have  any. 

Bacon  or  beef,  or  such  thing  as  you  find.'  " 

Nor  was  the  morality  of  these  friars  more  unimpeachable.  The 
virtue  of  the  clergy  in  general  may  be  pretty  decisively  inferred 
from  a  petition  presented  to  parliament  by  the  clergy  in  1449, 
which  prayed  that  all  cases  of  rape,  committed  by  priests  before 
the  following  1st  June,  might  be  pardoned,  on  condition  that  a 
noble  {Qs.  Sd.)  should  be  paid  to  the  king  on  behalf  of  every 
priest  in  the  kingdom.     Nor  did  the  mendicants  greatly  differ 

*  A  service  of  thirty  masses.        f  The  last  words  of  the  church  service. 


16  THE    LIGHT    OF    A    DARK    AGE. 

from  the  priests.  One  of  them  is  described  by  Chaucer  (and  the 
portrait  corresponds  with  a  multitude  of  insinuations  scattered 
about  his  works)  as  "  a  wanton  and  a  merrie,"  having  his  tippet 
stuflfed  full  of  presents  "  for  to  given  faire  wives ; "  "  he  sings  a 
merrie  note ;  "  he  knows  "  ful  wel  the  tavernes  in  every  town  ;  " 
he  could  "  rage  as  it  hadde  been  a  whelp  ;  "  and 

"  Wan  that  he  had  his  song. 
His  eyen  twinkled  in  his  hed  aright 
As  dovv  the  sterres  in  a  frosty  night.'* 

Such  are  only  specimens. 

The  Dominicans  had,  on  their  first  introduction  into  England, 
settled  at  Oxford.  But,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  their  disor- 
ders and  encroachments  had  so  enormously  increased,  as  to  reduce 
the  number  of  university  students  from  thirty  thousand  to  six 
thousand.  Parents  feared  to  send  their  children  to  the  schools, 
lest  they  should  become  corrupted  by  the  friars.  Fitz-Ralph,  the 
Chancellor  of  Oxford,  and  afterwards  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  had 
appealed  against  them  to  the  pope,  but  the  death  of  the  prelate 
suspended  the  proceedings. 

It  was  at  this  crisis  that  Wiclif,  on  behalf  of  the  university  in 
which  he  held  the  post  of  divinity  professor,  entered  the  lists  of 
controversial  warfare.  Brought  up  in  the  most  rigid  school  of 
Aristotle  and  St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  of  Ockham  and  Duns  Scotus, 
Wiclif  was  well  versed  in  all  the  dialectical  subtleties  of  the  day. 
But  he  was  more ;  —  his  remarkable  acquaintance  with  the  Scrip- 
lures —  a  matter  not  altogether  neglected  by  the  schoolmen  of 
his  day  —  had  procured  for  him  the  title  of  the  evangelical  doc- 
tor, as  Aquinas  had  been  called  the  angelical,  from  his  discussions 
of  the  properties  of  angels.  Whatever  Wiclif 's  merits  as  a  school- 
man, his  distinction  in  this  controversy  arose  from  the  plain  sense 
and  daring  pungency  of  his  diatribes.  His  words  were  strong, 
though  careless ;  he  spared  no  epithets,  he  rounded  no  periods.  It 
is  beside  our  purpose  to  enter  further  into  the  nature  of  this  con- 
troversy.    It  will  be  sufficient  to  remark  that  Wiclif 's  part  in  it 


THE    LIGHT    OF    A    DAllK    AGE.  17 

gained  him  speedy  preferment.  He  was  constituted  warden,  first 
of  Balhol  College,  and  afterwards  of  Canterbury  Hall,  by  the 
presentation  of  Islip,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  Islip  soon  after 
died,  and  his  successor  in  ofiice,  who  was  favorable  to  the  religious 
orders,  deposed  Wiclif  from  his  post.  Wiclif  appealed  to  the 
pwpe,  and  ultimately  lost  his  appointment. 

Every  one  must  have  observed  how  frequently  it  happens,  in 
excited  states  of  society,  that  slight  circumstances  are  attracted, 
as  by  a  kind  of  magnetic  influence,  to  range  themselves  about 
great  principles.  Whilst  Wiclif  was  awaiting  the  papal  decision 
on  his  wardership,  a  concurrent  movement  of  much  greater  import- 
ance was  agitating  the  community.  The  pope.  Urban  V.,  not 
satisfied  that  one-third  of  the  property  of  England  had  already 
passed  over  to  the  church,  had  demanded  of  Edward  III.  the 
tribute  promised  by  King  John,  in  token  of  his  feudal  subjection 
to  the  successors  of  St.  Peter.  But  the  demand  came  a  day  too 
late,  and  the  House  of  Commons,  which  had  now  become  one  of 
the  powers  of  the  realm,  united  with  the  spirited  monarch  in 
repudiating  the  claim.  Up  to  this  time,  the  church  had  been  the 
superior  and  the  state  the  inferior  power ;  but  now  lords  spiritual 
and  temporal  united  with  the  commons  in  repudiating  the  claims 
of  the  papacy,  and  in  declaring  themselves  ready  to  uphold  the 
monarch  in  resistance  to  its  ofiensive  demands.  Wiclif,  who  was 
already  known  to  the  court,  and  who  had  been  promoted  to  the 
office  of  king's  chaplain,  entered  warmly  into  this  controversy,  and 
his  name,  now  graced  by  the  title  of  D.  D.,  appears  second  on  the 
list  of  English  delegates  selected  by  the  parliament  to  remonstrate 
with  the  pontiff  at  Bruges. 

In  this  embassy  he  was  associated  with  men  of  the  highest  rank 
and  station,  and,  among  others,  with  John  of  Gaunt,  his  future 
patron,  third  son  of  Edward  III.  To  this  great  man,  the  Duke 
of  Lancaster,  much  of  the  management  of  the  kingdom  was  con- 
fided, in  the  latter  part  of  this  and  the  commencement  of  the  suc- 
ceeding reign ;  and  he  was  the  only  member  of  the  royal  family 
who  took  a  conspicuous  part  in  the  stormy  religious  controversies 
2* 


18  THE   LIGHT    OF    A    DAEK    AGS. 

of  those  times.  It  would  interest  us  much  to  know  the  details  of 
the  proceedings  of  the  great  reformer  during  this  memorable 
period.  Bruges,  that  old  continental  city,  memorable  still  for  the 
traces  which  it  preserves  of  the  mediseval  ages,  —  a  kind  of  Venice 
of  the  north,  whose  merchants  were  princes  resolutely  maintaining 
freedom  of  thought  and  action,  —  was  doubtless  the  scene  of  many 
debates  and  movements  of  the  highest  importance.  But  the 
records  have  mainly  perished.  About  the  same  time,  an  energetic 
effort  was  made  by  the  parliament  to  dispossess  churchmen  of  the 
high  secular  offices  they  were  then  in  the  habit  of  holding,  and  to 
confine  the  clergy  to  their  more  spiritual  duties.  Wiclif  entered 
into  this  controversy  with  characteristic  ardor. 

The  consequence  of  these  movements  was,  that  the  Bishop  of 
Winchester  relinquished  his  post  of  chancellor,  and  the  Bishop  of 
Exeter  resigned  that  of  treasurer. 

Though  the  mission  of  Wiclif  to  Bruges  was  productive  of  little 
direct  service,  it  was  of  unspeakable  bene^t  in  maturing  the  views 
of  the  reformer  himself  Something,  indeed,  was  done  in  support 
of  the  celebrated  statute  against  "  provisors,"  passed  in  1350  ;  but 
the  increasing  age  and  infirmities  of  the  king  rendered  him  less 
an  object  of  dread  than  he  had  been  heretofore,  and  Wiclif  saw  in 
the  pope's  conduct,  throughout  the  whole  transaction,  a  worldly 
ambition  on  the  one  hand,  and  a  paltry  evasiveness  on  the  other, 
which  stimulated  him  to  attack  the  Romish  hierarchy  with 
increased  severity.  Removed  from  his  mastership  at  Oxford,  he 
was  at  this  time,  by  way  of  amends,  constituted  prebendary  of 
Worcester,  and  rector  of  Lutterworth. 

Chaucer's  description  of  the  good  parish  priest  has  been  fre- 
quently supposed  to  be  a  representation  of  the  manner  in  which 
Wiclif  fulfilled  the  duties  of  his  cure.  Certain  it  is  that  Chaucer, 
like  the  reformer,  was  attached  to  the  party  of  the  Duke  of  Lan- 
caster, and  sympathized  strongly  with  many  of  Wiclifs  opinions. 
But  that  the  portrait  of  the  clergyman  was  designed  to  represent 
any  individual,  is  without  sufficient  evidence.  Wiclif  is  repre- 
sented as  going  about  the  country,  clad  in  a  long  frieze  gown. 


THE    LIGHT    OF    A    DARK    AGE.  19 

preaching  whenever  he  could  find  or  make  an  opportunity.  In 
thus  occupying  himself,  he  was  intent  on  correcting  a  special 
deficiency  of  the  times.  Not  many  years  before,  Archbishop 
Pecham,  after  complaining  of  the  almost  universal  disuse  of 
preaching,  made  some  attempt  at  an  improvement.  He  drew  out 
a  list  of  topics,  to  be  expounded  in  the  regular  course  of  pulpit 
instruction,  such  as  the  decalogue,  the  articles  of  faith,  the  seven 
leading  virtues,  the  seven  deadly  sins,  &c.  Each  preacher  was 
required  to  deliver  four  sermons  to  his  parishioners  during  the  year ; 
and  the  sort  of  aid  which  the  archbishop  proposed  to  give  may  be 
well  understood  by  those  who  are  familiar  with  the  technical  terms, 
"  cramming  "  and  "  grinding."  Wiclif,  however,  was  a  preacher 
for  himself,  and  in  earnest.  He  devoted  his  time,  also,  most  assid- 
uously, to  the  humbler  duties  of  his  sacred  office.  His  place  was, 
every  morning,  by  the  sick-bed  of  the  sufierer,  or  in  the  home  of 
the  mourner.  A  considerable  number  of  his  sermons  are  still  ex- 
tant,— probably  preserved  by  the  care  of  his  curate, — replete  with 
vehement  attacks  upon  incompetent  and  indolent  priests,  exhort- 
ing to  the  study  of  God's  Word  in  opposition  to  popes  and  pre- 
lates, vindicating  the  freedom  of  Christian  men,  and  dilating,  with 
fervid  earnestness,  on  those  various  points  of  doctrine  or  practice 
which  would  be  enforced  by  a  Christian  teacher  in  perilous  times. 

Plain  speaking  like  this  roused,  we  may  well  suppose,  the 
reformer's  enemies  into  action.  The  seclusion  of  Lutterworth 
proved  no  asylum  to  "Wiclif.  Scarcely  was  he  settled  in  his  new 
rectory,  when,  at  the  instigation  of  Courtenay,  Bishop  of  London, 
a  haughty  and  intolerant  churchman,  but  fully  accredited  by  the 
pope  in  the  movement,  the  reformer  was  cited  to  appear  before 
him,  at  the  church  of  St.  Paul's,  in  London. 

What  would  not  a  historian  and  antiquarian  of  the  present  day 
sacrifice  to  know  the  details  of  a  journey  from  Lutterworth  to 
London  five  hundred  years  ago,  or  to  look  upon  the  picture  of  the 
metropolis  at  that  date  ?  Instead  of  the  well-adjusted  towns  and 
quiet  homesteads  which  the  traveller  now  passes,  on  his  way  to  the 
grr.it  city,  the  route  would  then  be  marked  by  the  presence  of 


20  THE    LIGHT    OF    A    DARK    AGE. 

castles  of  strength,  whilst  the  few  inhabitants  were  fain  to  place 
cottages  or  other  property  beneath  their  gigantic-  protection. 
Extensive  forests  yet  stretched  themselves  across  the  country,  the 
haunts  of  the  successors  of  Robin  Hood  and  his  associates ;  and 
such  a  man  as  the  reformer  would  be  only  safe  with  a  military 
escort  to  protect  him,  not  only  from  such  marauders,  but  from  open 
and  avowed  enemies.  Except  castles,  nothing  more  distinguished 
the  period  than  the  churches  which  were  springing  up  in  all  the 
larger  towns,  marked  by  the  features  of  a  true,  though  then  some- 
what modern,  style  of  architecture.  Arrived  in  London,  possibly 
to  make  his  "  hostelrie "  at  the  Tabard  Inn,  in  Southwark,  the 
traveller  from  Leicestershire  would  gaze  with  unconcealed  eager- 
ness upon  a  metropolis  then  rarely  visited.  The  old,  ugly,  but 
venerable  bridge,  now  supplanted,  was  then  the  only  one  which 
spanned  the  river ;  the  stream,  at  ebb  tide,  flowing  down  its  arches 
almost  with  the  force  of  a  cataract.  Though  on  this  bridge  the 
church  of  St.  Thomas  was  conspicuous,  yet  it  was,  as  yet,  unen- 
cumbered with  the  numerous  buildings  afterwards  attaching  them- 
selves to  it  like  limpets ;  and  chivalry,  then  the  prevailing  fashion, 
held  occasional  joustings  on  its  narrow  area.  The  order  of  the 
Templars  had  been  recently  suppressed ;  but  that  of  the  Knights 
of  St.  John  survived,  and  maintained  its  splendors  in  a  building 
adjacent  to  the  ancient  gate,  yet  standing.  "  The  pomp  and  cir- 
cumstance of  glorious  war  "  was  witnessed  everywhere.  Mingling 
with  the  crowd  in  the  streets,  less  dense  than  that  of  1851,  the 
spectator  might  discern  the  mailed  baron,  with  his  armed  retinue 
of  bowmen  and  lancers,  or  the  gay  lady,  wearing  the  embroidered 
jacket,  not  much  unlike  the  "polka"  of  a  more  modern  day, 
though  sometimes  accompanied  by  the  long  strips  of  linen  which 
dangled  from  her  elbows,  or  fluttered  like  pennons  in  the  breeze, 
whilst  her  head  was  enveloped  in  an  inflated  but  not  ungraceful 
head-tire,  and  surmounted  by  a  woollen  cap.  Ecclesiastics  of  high 
rank  were  then  little  distinguishable  from  the  military  barons ; 
the  man  of  peace  was  not  to  be  found  amidst  those  mounted  and 
armed  retainers.     Sometimes,  amidst  the  crowd,  who  were  dressed 


THE   LIGHT    OF    A    DAIIK    AGE,  21 

in  sober,  and  often  wretched  habits,  might  be  discerned  the  men 
of  some  of  the  less  strict  orders,  or  the  monk,  with  his  bald  ton- 
sure, and  often  jolly  form ;  and  not  unfrequently  the  eye  might 
rest  upon  the  bare  head,  brown  coat  and  long  rosary,  of  the  Fran- 
ciscan friar,  or  the  solemn,  black-hooded  statelincss  of  the  Domin- 
ican. The  civic  honors  of  London  were  then  in  their  infancy,  and 
were  guarded  by  the  citizens  with  a  jealousy  pertaining  to  semi- 
barbarous  times,  whilst  the  people  were  at  all  times  ripe  for  con- 
iiict,  or  even  for  revolt.  A  peculiar  feature  of  the  period  was, 
that  the  city  was  then  beginning  to  be  remarkable  for  its  opaque 
and  deuse  atmosphere,  derived  from  the  use  of  coals,  then  recently 
introduced.  The  sides  of  the  Thames  were  not  then,  as  now, 
crowded  with  houses  of  merchandise.  Stately  palaces,  well  forti- 
fied, stood  on  the  Strand  side  of  the  river,  among  which  the  Savoy, 
the  castellated  residence  of  the  Duke  of  Lancaster,  was  very  con- 
spicuous. A  large  Dominican  friary  stood  in  Blackfriars ;  another, 
of  equal  pretensions,  near  to  the  Temple,  belonged  to  the  Carme- 
lites, and  was  called  Whitefriars ;  the  Franciscans  had  an  edifice 
in  Newgate-street,  whilst  a  fourth,  in  the  vicinity  of  what  is  now 
the  Bank,  was  devoted  to  the  Austins,  or  Augustines.  The 
plague,  which  had  recently  desolated  Europe,  had  been  extremely 
fatal  in  London,  and  had  caused  considerable  improvements  in  the 
city.  But  it  was  close,  ill-ventilated,  and  inconvenient ;  and  the 
inhabitant  of  Chester  can  well  understand,  from  certain  parts  of 
his  own  city,  what  was  its  general  appearance. 

To  this  city,  and,  when  arrived  there,  to  one  of  the  courts  in 
the  vicinity  of  Old  St.  Paul's,  Wiclif,  now  an  accused  man,  made 
his  way.  He  had  sought  protection  from  the  Duke  of  Lancaster, 
who,  nothing  loth,  accompanied  him  on  his  trial,  together  with 
Earl  Percy,  the  Marshal  of  England.  On  their  arrival  at  St. 
Paul's,  they  met  an  excited  crowd.  The  Duke  of  Lancaster  was 
suspected  to  be  hostile  to  the  liberties  of  the  city  of  London,  and 
was  extremely  unpopular  amongst  its  inhabitants,  and  the  repre- 
sentations made  by  the  hierarchy  had  greatly  inflamed  the  minds 
of  the  po)ple.     Wiclif  made  his  way  with  much  difiiculty  into 


liZ  TUE    LICiHT    OF    A    DAEK    AGE. 

the  presence  of  his  judges.  He  found  Courtenay  extremely 
annoyed  at  the  pow3rful  defenders  who  stood  at  his  side.  When 
the  earl  marshal  employed  his  authority  to  gain  Wiclif  a  place, 
the  following  excited  conversation  occurred : 

Bishop  Courtenay.  Lord  Percy,  if  I  had  known  what  mais- 
teries  you  would  have  kept  in  the  church,  I  would  have  kept  you 
out  from  coming  hither. 

Duke  of  Lancaster,  He  shall  keep  such  maisteries  here, 
though  you  say  nay ! 

Lord  Percy.  Wiclif,  sit  down,  for  you  have  many  things  to 
answer  to,  and  you  need  to  repose  yourself  on  a  soft  seat. 

Bishop.  It  is  unseasonable  that  one  cited  before  his  ordinary 
should  sit  down  during  his  answer.     He  must  and  shall  stand ! 

Duke  of  LaiKoster.  The  Lord  Percy  his  motion  for  Wiclif  is 
but  reasonable.  And  as  for  you,  my  lord  bishop,  who  are  grown 
so  proud  and  arrogant,  I  will  bring  down  the  pride,  not  of  you 
alone,  but  of  all  the  prelatcy  in  England ! 

Bishop.     Do  your  worst,  sir ! 

Duke  of  Lancaster.  Thou  bearest  thyself  so  brag  upon  thy 
parents,*  which  shall  not  be  able  to  help  thee ;  they  shall  have 
enough  to  do  to  help  themselves. 

Bishop.  My  confidence  is  not  in  my  parents,  nor  in  any  man 
else,  but  only  in  God,  in  whom  T  trust ;  by  whose  assistance  I  will 
be  bold  to  speak  the  truth. 

Duke.  Rather  than  I  will  take  these  words  at  his  hands,  I 
would  pluck  the  bishop  by  the  hair  out  of  the  church ! 

How  often  have  great  interests  been  jeoparded  by  such  rash  and 
excited  advocates !  John  of  Gaunt  had  little  sympathy  with 
Wiclif 's  opinions,  as  matters  of  truth.  He  regarded  them  only 
as  implements  of  a  party,  and  he  soon  after  this  period  grew  cold 
on  Wiclif  and  his  cause.  His  last  words,  however,  though  spoken 
in  an  undertone,  were  caught  up  by  the  by-standers,  and  a  tumult 
ensued.     The  trial  was  suspended ;  the  mob  proceeded  to  violence. 

♦  Courtenay's  father  was  Duke  of  Devonshire,  a  powerful  noble. 


THE    LIGHT   OF    A    DARK    AGE  23 

"  They  broke  open,"  says  Fox,  "  the  Marshalsea,  and  freed  all  the 
prisoners ;  and,  not  content  with  this,  a  vast  number  of  them  went 
to  the  duke's  palace,  in  the  Savoy,  where,  missing  his  person,  they 
plundered  his  house."  At  the  same  time,  a  clergyman,  mistaken 
for  the  earl  marshal,  was  put  to  death. 

The  protracted  and  vigorous  reign  of  Edward  III.  was  now 
ended,  and  the  weak-minded  Richard  of  Bordeaux  had  succeeded 
him  on  the  throne.  One  of  the  earliest  questions  debated  by  par- 
liament in  this  reign  was,  whether  it  was  not  lawful  for  the 
nation  to  forbid  the  exit  of  its  treasure  to  foreign  ecclesiastics. 
The  judgment  of  Wiclif  was  appealed  to,  who,  as  a  divine  ground- 
ing his  opinions  solely  on  the  lessons  of  God's  Word,  gave  his  con- 
clusion strongly  in  the  affirmative.  In  his  published  reply  he 
says,  "  Temporal  lords  may  lawfully  and  meritoriously  take  away 
the  goods  of  fortune  from  a  delinquent  church."  "  In  the  paper 
subsequently  published  he  repeats  that  the  use  of  church  censures, 
and  of  the  authority  of  the  magistrate,  to  extort  from  the  people 
a  revenue  for  the  priesthood,  are  customs  unknown  to  the  better 
ages  of  the  church,  and  to  be  numbered  among  the  corruptions 
consequent  on  her  endowment  under  Oonstantine.  He  even  pro- 
ceeds so  far  as  to  say,  that  a  state  of  things  might  arise  in  which 
to  deprive  the  church  of  her  wealth  would  be  a  more  Christian 
act  than  to  have  bestowed  it  upon  her."  '^ 

Though  the  church  had  been  baffled  in  its  first  endeavor  to 
punish  the  boldness  of  Wiclif,  it  resolved  to  make  a  new  attempt 
to  exterminate  these  new  and  dangerous  heresies.  The  pope  wrote 
letters  to  the  king  and  the  higher  ecclesiastics,  demanding  the 
seizure  of  the  reformer's  person,  and  the  suppression  of  his  tenets. 
The  rector  of  Lutterworth  was  once  more  summoned.  The  Duke 
of  Lancaster  had  now  lost  much  of  his  political  influence,  and  on 
this  occasion  Wiclif  was  alone. 

But  it  was  better  as  it  was.  The  people,  who  had  now  exten- 
uively  learned  Wiclif 's  doctrines,  constituted  a  surer  protection. 

*  Vaughan's  Tracts  and  Treatises  of  Wycliffe,  XLvn. 


24  THE   LIGHT    OF    A    DARK    AGE. 

The  queen  mother,  widow  of  the  Black  Prince,  sent  a  message 
to  the  court  of  Lambeth,  before  which  Wiclif  was  cited,  forbid- 
ding further  proceedings.  Muzzled  thus  by  a  power  greater  than 
their  own,  the  bafBed  authors  of  the  citation  could  only  vent  their 
rage  in  angry  growls. 

But  the  great  discovery  was  already  made.  Digging  amidst 
these  ruins  of  a  hieroglyphical  system,  now  beginning  to  be  obso- 
lete, Wiclif  had  found  the  explanatory  stone,  the  key  to  the  whole 
mystery ;  and,  after  him.,  Luther  had  nothing  left  to  do  but  to 
show  its  important  application.  Errors  and  truth  were  alike 
expounded  by  one  simple  principle,  the  sufficiency  of  scrip- 
ture, Wiclif  seized  the  truth,  and  it  became  in  his  hand  a  thun- 
derbolt. His  blood  was  up,  and  he  wrote  daringly,  and,  for 
himself,  dangerously.  It  is  not  for  ordinary  minds  to  conceive 
of  the  impetuosity  of  an  ardent  soul  which  has  caught  fire  from  a 
"  present  truth,"  especially  if  it  happen  to  be  one  which  has  been 
long  undiscovered.  It  is  more  than  a  conviction,  —  it  is  an  inspir- 
ation. Colder  men  may  censure ;  unbelieving  ones  may  doubt. 
Prudence  may  summon  a  halt,  and  fear  may  draw  back  aghast. 
But  such  a  man  sees  his  goal,  and  opposition  only  stimulates  the 
high  purpose  of  his  noble  nature.  Bushing  onward  to  the  conflict, 
Wiclif  was  not  always  careful  on  what  or  on  whom  he  trod.  But 
he  uplifted  his  standard,  and,  fearful  as  have  been  the  attacks  upon 
it,  it  has  never  been  removed.  He  set  up  the  truth  which  the 
experience  of  centuries  has  but  served  to  maintain,  that,  whether 
against  popes  or  cardinals,  against  law  churches  or  ecclesiastical 
organizations,  the  only  test  of  truth  is  the  Word  of  God. 

But  the  mortal  man  failed  where  the  spiritual  one  was  impreg- 
nable. Bulls  from  Rome  denounced  him ;  a  hostile  and  furious 
clamor  pursued  his  steps,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  irritation  conse- 
quent on  these  combined  hostilities  his  overtasked  frame  gave 
way.  He  fell  ill  at  Oxford,  where  he  had  still  continued  to 
deliver  his  lectures.  His  sickness  emboldened  his  old  enemies,  the 
mendicants,  and  they  sent  a  deputation  to  his  chamber,  imagining 
that  he  would  attribute  his  illness  to  a  judicial  providence,  and 


THE    LIGHT    OF    A    DAIIK    AGE.  25 

be  ready  to  recant.  But  they  had  mistaken  their  man.  Wiclif 
listened  in  silence  to  the  admonitions  addressed  to  him  ;  and,  when 
t'ley  were  confcluded,  beckoned  his  servants  to  raise  him  in  his  bed. 
Then,  fixing  his  eyes  on  those  who  were  around  hira,  he  said,  with 
emphasis,  "  I  shall  not  die,  but.  live,  and  declare  the  evil  deeds  oi 
the  friars."  It  was  like  a  voice  from  another  world  !  The  men- 
dicants fled,  and  time  soon  brought  to  pass  the  sick  man's  predic- 
tion. 

The  influence  of  the  doctrines  which  Wiclif  promulgated  was  at 
this  time  extremely  great.  Even  popish  writers  have  confessed 
that  more  than  half  of  the  population  of  England  were  Lollards ;  ^ 
and  Walsingham,  the  papal  advocate  of  the  period,  declares  that 
the  Londoners  were  nearly  all  such.  It  must  not  be  supposed  that 
up  to  this  time  heretical  opinions,  as  they  were  termed,  had  been 
absolutely  unknown  in  England,  though  they  certainly  had  met 
with  remarkably  little  encouragement  here.  In  matters  of  relig- 
ious freedom,  Britain  had  been  hitherto  far  behind  its  continental 
neighbors.  Its  submission  to  the  pope  was  more  abject,  its  dread 
of  heresy  more  obstructive  to  free  inquiry.  Though  from  this 
circumstance  it  persecuted  less  than  others,  it  was  not,  however, 
entirely  guiltless  of  human  blood.  In  the  year  1159,  a  band  of 
German  exiles  had  appeared  in  this  country,  who,  though  they 
did  not  claim  the  character  of  ecclesiastics,  denied  or  ignored  many 
of  the  favorite  doctrines  of  the  Church  of  Borne.  They  appear 
only  to  have  made  a  single  convert ;  but  they  were  condemned  to 
bo  branded  in  the  forehead,  whipped  through  the  streets,  and 
denied  the  smallest  offices  of  life.  Thus  wounded,  naked,  desolate, 
they  died  niiseral'ly.  During  the  reign  of  John,  mention  is  also 
made  of  a  company  of  Albigenses,  who  were  burned  alive.  The 
doctrines  of  Wiclif  appear  to  have  been  the  first  which  made  any 
considerable  impression  on  the  population.  The  name  "  Lollard  " 
has  been  attributed  by  some  to  Walter  Lolhard,  who  suffered  death 
for  his  opinions  in  the  city  of  Cologne.     But  this  is  altogether  an 

*  Knighton  Troysd.  Script,  x.  col.  2664 

3 


26  THE    LIGHT    OF    A    DARK    AGE. 

error.  The  origin  of  the  word  is  the  German  LuUeji,  whence  the 
English  verb  to  lull.  The  term  "  Lollard  "  was  thus  expressive 
of  one  who  praised  God  by  sacred  songs.  It  did  not  denote  any 
particular  class  of  opinions,  but  was  applied  generally  to  all  those 
who  made,  or  were  supposed  to  make,  professions  of  unusual  piety. 
The  attention  received  by  the  sick  and  dying,  from  various  religious 
persons,  at  the  time  when  the  fearful  plague  of  1345  was  deso- 
lating Europe  and  taking  off  half  its  inhabitants,  and  when  the 
religious  orders  had  fled  in  terror  from  its  advance,  had  tended 
greatly  to  render  the  name  "  Lollard  "  popular  among  the  people. 
Though  not  himself  the  originator,  therefore,  of  this  body  as  a 
sect,  Wiclif 's  teachings  had  largely  contributed  to  strengthen  their 
opinions,  and  to  increase  their  numbers. 

It  appears,  from  the  first  act  in  our  parliamentary  history,  which 
was  one  levelled  against  the  followers  of  Wiclif,  and  providing  for 
their  arrest,  that  the  great  reformer  and  his  "  poor  priests  "  were 
accustomed,  without  license  from  their  ordinary,  to  preach  daily  as 
they  perambulated  the  country,  in  churches  and  church-yards,  in 
markets  and  in  fairs,  and  wherever  a  congregation  could  be  assem- 
bled. Two  of  the  names  which  figure  in  these  proceedings  were 
Dr.  Hereford  and  Master  John  Ashton.  The  former  probably 
aided  Wiclif  in  his  translation ;  the  other  was  an  active  Lollard 
missionary,  who,  by  simplicity  of  character,  conversation  and 
preaching,  was  distinguished  among  the  rest.  The  question 
"  why  poor  priests  have  no  benefices,"  which  is  the  title  of  one 
of  Wiclif 's  tracts,  is  thus  easily  answered.  They  were  the  pro- 
testors—  the  dissenters  of  their  day.  One  of  these  "poor 
priests"  —  William  Thorp  —  is  described  as  having  principally 
labored  in  the  northern  counties. 

Knighton  observes  that  in  the  year  1382  the  number  of  Wic- 
lif's  followers  had  greatly  increased  ;  and  that,  "  starting  like  sap- 
lings from  the  root  of  a  tree,  they  were  multiplied,  and  filled  every 
place  within  the  compass  of  the  land."  As  Knighton  was  an 
inhabitant  of  Leicester,  thus  much  may,  at  least,  be  inferred,  —  that 
Wiclif 's  doctrines  had  taken  a  strong  hold  on  the  inhabitants  of 


THE   LIGHT   OF   A    DARK    AGE.  27 

the  midland  counties.  The  sympathetic  influence  of  similar 
religious  sentiments  is  always  remarkable;  and  persons  were 
struck  by  the  singular  correspondence,  in  modes  of  speech  and 
peculiarities  of  opinion,  among  these  Lollards,  wherever  they  were 
found.  Like  most  sincere  converts  to  important  truths,  they  were 
eager  and  prompt  for  controversy,  fervent  in  their  appeals  and  their 
remonstrances,  and  inclined,  on  all  occasions,  to  act  aggressively  on 
the  old  system.  It  will  interest  many  modern  readers  to  know 
that  a  renunciation  of  war  was  one  of  the  principles  of  the  Lollard 
creed ;  and  that,  whilst  they  claimed  from  the  civil  power  that 
they  should  be  protected  in  their  just  rights,  they  regarded  moral 
suasion  as  the  only  means  of  establishing  truth.  ^ 

On  his  recovery  from  the  illness  which  we  have  just  mentioned, 
Wiclif  now  set  about  that  great  work  on  which  his  fame  as  a 
reformer  may  most  securely  rest,  —  the  translation  of  the  Scrip- 
tures into  the  vernacular  tongue.  Before  the  reformer's  time, 
portions  of  the  Word  of  God  had  been  rendered  into  the  vulgar 
language,  usually  accompanied,  however,  by  comments.  It  was 
Wiclif 's  great  ambition  to  liberate  gospel  truth  from  the  bondage 
of  an  unknown  tongue,  and  thus  to  make  his  appeal  to  private 
judgment,  —  the  true  means  of  determining  the  accuracy  of  the 
doctrines  he  had  so  laboriously  taught.  A  concurrence  of  circum- 
stances rendered  the  period  at  which  this  translation  was  issued 
very  remarkable.  It  was  in  a  secondary,  though  not  unimportant 
sense,  "  the  fulness  of  the  time."  The  good  seed  scattered  in 
Europe  by  the  Albigenses  had  not  wholly  perished  ;  the  English 
language  was  becoming  fixed  and  definite ;  the  influence  of  Rome 
was  perceptibly  on  the  wane ;  and  the  seat  of  the  papacy  had 
been  removed  from  the  Eternal  city.  The  constitution  of  Eng- 
land had  begun  to  develop  itself  in  its  existing  form ;  and  the  love 
of  liberty,  both  in  action  and  thought,  was  taking  firm  root  in  the 
minds  of  the  multitude.  In  the  apprehension  of  Romanists,  there- 
fore, Wiclif 's  Bible  was  like  a  firebrand  thrown  amongst  a  mass  of 

♦  Vaughan's  Wycliffe,  p.  190.   _  ■— 

7  THE      'Jr'\ 

"BRSITW 


28  THE    LIGHT   OF    A    DARK    AGE. 

combustibles.  Knigbton  says  :  "  In  this  way  the  gospel  pearl  is 
cast  abroad  and  trodden  under  foot  of  swine ;  and  that  which  was 
before  precious  to  both  clergy  and  laity  is  rendered,  as  it  were, 
the  common  jest  of  both.  The  jewel  of  the  church  is  turned 
into  the  sport  of  the  people ;  and  what  was  hitherto  the  principal 
gift  of  the  clergy  and  divines  is  made  forever  common  to  the 
laity."  In  subsequent  times  it  was  usual,  when  a  heretic  wa^ 
burned,  to  fasten  round  his  neck  such  portions  of  Wiclif 's  translay 
tion  as  were  found  in  his  possession. 

The  excitement  which  followed  the  issuing  of  this  edition  of  the 
Scriptures  was  intense.  A  bill  was  brought  into  parliament  to 
suppress  the  whole  work,  under  the  plea  that  it  would  prove  iniin- 
ous  to  all  religion.  The  friends  of  Wiclif  argued  that,  as  the 
translation  of  the  Scriptures  into  Latin  had  been  followed  by  no 
less  than  sixty  diflferent  heretical  opinions,  though  none  of  those 
heresies  had  been  charged  on  that  translation,  there  could  be  no 
argument  against  the  English  Bible  which  did  not  hold  against 
the  Latin  one.  The  bill  for  the  suppression  was  thrown  out  by  a 
large  majority. 

Every  reader  of  history  will  remember  the  insurrection  which, 
headed  by  Wat  Tyler,  menaced  the  royal  authority  in  the  early 
part  of  the  reign  of  Richard  II.  The  opportunity  of  calumni- 
ating the  reformer  was  too  tempting  to  be  lost ;  and,  though  at 
that  period  other  European  states  exhibited  similar  convulsions, 
the  disaffection  was  eagerly  traced  to  Wiclif  and  his  writings.  It 
is  a  penalty  which  every  one  who  attacks  abuses  must  be  content 
to  bear,  that,  whatever  disorders  or  convulsions  may  simultane- 
ously arise,  which  can  be  by  possibility  connected  with  his  doc- 
trines, the  stigma  will  be  fixed  on  himself  It  is  always  convenient 
to  transfer  blame  from  the  evils  themselves  to  the  individual  who 
has  exposed  them.  But  in  this  connection  Walsingham  has  him- 
self recorded  the  confession  of  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  rebellion, 
that  the  destruction  of  the  hierarchy  was  contemplated  in  thai 
insurrection  only  to  make  way  for  the  promotion  of  the  mendicants. 
At  the  same  time  the  House  of  Commons,  in  an  address  to  tho 


THE    LIGHT   OF    A    DARK    AGE.  29 

king,  declared  that  the  late  riots  were  but  the  natural  consequence 
of  years  of  oppression  and  misgo^ernment.=^  It  is  beside  our 
purpose  to  detail  the  atfack  which  Wiclif  next  made  on  the  doc- 
trine of  trans\ibstantiation,  in  his  lectures  before  the  University 
of  Oxford,  in  1381.  It  may  be  sufficient  to  observe  that,  in  the 
wurse  of  the  quarrel,  the  reformer,  having  appealed,  as  before,  to 
the  Duke  of  Lancaster,  was  informed  that  the  best  advice  that 
prince  could  give  him  was  to  abandon  his  novelties,  and  to  submit 
quietly  to  his  ecclesiastical  superiors.  Courtenay  was  now  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury.  He  summoned  Wiclif  to  a  convocation,  at 
the  monastery  of  the  Grayfriars  in  London,  to  answer  for  his  new 
and  dangerous  opinions.  Wiclif  declined  to  appear,  declaring 
that,  as  a  member  of  the  University,  he  was  not  subjected  to 
episcopal  jurisdiction ;  but  the  court  proceeded,  in  his  absence,  to 
condemn  his  sentiments.  Whilst  they  were  debating  these  points 
an  earthquake  occurred,  by  which  the  monastery  was  violently 
agitated.  The  bishops  threw  down  their  papers,  and  declared  that 
their  discussion  was  displeasing  to  God,  and  that  they  would  pro- 
ceed no  further.  Courtenay  with  some  difficulty  calmed  their 
fears.  Wiclif  was  accustomed  jestingly  to  call  this  the  "  Council 
of  the  Herydene,"  —  that  is,  earthquake.  The  resolution  of  the 
convocation  was,  that  some  of  Wiclif 's  opinions  were  erroneous,  and 
some  heretical.  Courtenay,  upon  this,  preferred  a  bill  in  parlia- 
ment to  imprison  preachers  of  heresy.  The  Lords  passed  it ;  but 
the  Commons,  jealous  of  the  powers  of  the  clergy,  refused  their 
concurrence.  Disappointed  in  his  act  of  parliament,  Courtenay 
obtained  letters  patent  from  the  king  to  the  same  effect ;  but  this 
measure  was  vehemently  opposed  by  the  Commons,  and  Richard 
II.  was  compelled  to  yield.  The  archbishop,  however,  succeeded, 
after  some  difficulty,  in  obtaining  the  expulsion  of  Wiclif  from  the 
University  of  Oxford.  The  contest  which  was  at  this  time  going 
on  between  two  rival  popes,  and  the  appointment  of  Spenser, 
Bishop  of  Norwich,  as  general  of  an  army,  in  the  war  made  by 

•  Hallam,  vol.  m.,  p.  93. 

8* 


30  THE   LIGHT   OF    A    DARK    AGE. 

Pope  Urban  against  Pope  Clement,  led  Wiclif  once  more  to  take 
up  his  pen.  Though  he  was  gow  advanced  in  years,  age  had  not 
abated  the  vigor  of  his  style.  He  asks  the  pope,  "  How  dare  you 
make  the  token  of  Christ  on  the  cross  (which  is  a  token  of  peace, 
mercy,  and  charity)  a  banner  to  lead  on  to  slay  Christian  men  for 
the  love  of  two  false  priests,  and  to  oppress  Christendom  worse 
than  Christ  and  his  apostles  were  oppressed  by  the  Jews  ?  When 
will  the  proud  priest  of  Rome  grant  indulgences  to  mankind  to 
live  in  peace  and  charity,  as  he  now  does  to  fight  and  slay  one 
another  ? " 

Roused  by  such  remonstrances,  Urban  summoned  him  to  Rome ; 
but  the  citation  came  too  late.  A  stroke  of  palsy  had  already 
fallen  upon  the  old  man,  and  his  enemies  regarded  him  as  no  longer 
an  object  of  terror.  His  public  work  was  done ;  but  yet  that  ven- 
erable form,  hoary  with  age,  and  bearing  an  expression  of  fine 
benevolence,  was  to  be  seen  amidst  the  public  worshippers  in  the 
parish  church  at  Lutterworth,  where  he  sometimes  preached.  But 
his  end  was  near.  "  It  was  reported,"  one  of  them  tells  us,  "  that 
he  had  prepared  accusations  and  blasphemies,  which  he  intended, 
on  the  day  he  was  taken  ill,  to  have  uttered  in  his  pulpit  against 
Thomas  a  Becket,  the  saint  and  martyr  of  the  day ;  but  by  the 
judgment  of  God  he  was  suddenly  struck,  and  the  palsy  seized  all 
his  limbs ;  and  that  mouth,  which  was  to  have  spoken  huge  things 
against  God  and  his  saints  and  holy  church,  was  miserably  drawn 
aside,  and  afibrded  a  frightful  spectacle  to  the  beholders.  His 
tongue  was  speechless,  and  his  head  shook,  showing  plainly  that 
the  curse  of  God  was  upon  him."  The  fact  is,  that  whilst  he  was 
attending  divine  service  in  the  church  at  Lutterworth,  he  was 
seized  with  a  fresh  attack  of  paralysis,  which,  on  the  third  day, 
terminated  his  valuable  life. 

Lutterworth  still  preserves  among  its  relics  the  chair  in  which 
the  proto-reformer  of  England  is  reported  to  have  died.  It  now 
occupies  a  place  by  the  communion-table  of  the  old  church.  It  is 
a  venerable  relic,  apparently  of  the  period  to  which  it  professes  to 
belong.     Wiclif 's  portrait  is  to  be  seen  in  his  vestry.     It  has  no 


THE    LIGHT    OF    A    DARK    AGE. 


81 


WICLIP'S   CHAIB. 


merit  as  a  work  of  art ;  but  corresponds  with  sufficient  closeness 
to  the  portraits  given  of  him  as  authentic,  —  one  of  which  is  that 
in  the  possession  of  the  Duke  of 
Dorset,  —  and  to  the  fine  one  pre- 
fixed to  Vaughan's  Life  of  the 
reformer.  In  all  of  them  he  is 
represented  as  of  a  manly  and  noble 
form,  wearing  a  flowing  gown,  and 
bearing  on  his  head  a  velvet  cap. 
His  face,  graced  by  a  long,  white 
beard,  exhibits  mingled  penetration, 
firmness,  intelligence,  and  goodness. 
Wiclif  died  on  the  31st  of  Decem- 
ber, 1384,  and  his  body  was  buried 
in  the  chancel  of  his  own  church. 

Many  of  the  opinions  of  this 
great  reformer  were  illustriously 
in  advance  of  his  times.  It  would  be  superfluous  to  cite  his  observ- 
ations on  the  multifarious  subjects  which  employed  his  pen ;  but 
some  of  his  opinions  are  so  decidedly  cognate  to  the  objects  of  the 
present  treatise,  as  to  justify  a  few  short  extracts. 

Respecting  the  sufficiency  of  the  Word  of  God :  —  "  Poor  priests 
and  true  men  would  willingly  yield  obedience  to  God  and  to  holy 
church,  and  also  to  each  man  on  earth,  inasmuch  as  he  teacheth 
truly  the  commandments  of  God  and  things  which  may  profit  the 
souls  of  men.  And  no  more  ought  any  man  to  obey,  even  to 
Christ  himself,  both  God  and  man.  If  any  worldly  prelate  asketh 
more  obedience  than  this,  he  surely  is  antichrist,  and  Lucifer's 
minister." 

With  regard  to  the  liberty  of  preaching  the  truth :  —  "Almighty 
Lord  God,  most  merciful,  and  in  wisdom  boundless,  since  thou 
sufieredst  Peter  and  all  apostles  to  have  so  great  fear  and  coward- 
ice, at  the  time  of  thy  passion,  that  they  flew  all  away  for  dread  of 
death  and  for  a  poor  woman's  voice ;  and  since,  afterwards,  by  the 
comfort  of  the  Holy  Ghost  thou  madest  them  so  strong  that  they 


82  THE    LIGHT    OF    A    DARK    AGE. 

were  afraid  of  no  man,  nor  of  pain,  nor  death ;  help  now,  by  gifts 
of  the  same  Spirit,  thy  poor  servants  who  all  their  life  have  been 
cowards,  and  make  them  strong  and  bold  in  thy  cause,  to  maintain 
the  gospel  against  antichrist  and  the  tyrants  of  this  world." 

Wiclif  strongly  advocated  the  removal  of  spiritual  men  from  all 
secular  duties,  and  from  the  temptations  of  inordinate  wealth. 
"  By  this  means,  the  poor  commons  would  be  discharged  of  many 
heavy  rents.  ^  =^  #  And  thus,  by  restoring  lordships  to  sec- 
ular men,  as  is  done  by  Holy  Writ,  and  by  reducing  the  clergy  to 
meekness  and  wilful  poverty  and  ghostly  travail,  as  lived  Christ 
and  his  apostles  :  sin  should  be  destroyed  in  each  degree  of  holy 
church,  and  holiness  of  life  brought  in,  and  secular  laws  strength- 
ened, and  the  poor  commons  aided,  and  good  government,  both 
temporal  and  spiritual,  come  again."  —  "Lordly  dominion  is  plainly 
forbidden  by  the  apostles,  and  wilt  thou  venture  to  usurp  the  same? 
If  a  lord,  thine  apostleship  is  lost ;  if  an  apostle,  thy  lordship  is  no 
more,  for  certainly  one  or  the  other  must  be  relinquished.  If  both 
are  sought,  both  shall  be  lost.  Or  shouldst  thou  succeed,  then 
judge  thyself  to  be  of  that  number  respecting  whom  God  so  greatly 
complains,  saying,  They  have  reigned,  but  not  through  me ;  they 
have  become  princes,  but  I  have  not  known  them.  ^  ^  This, 
then,  is  the  true  form  and  institution  of  the  apostolic  calling  — 
lordship  and  rule  are  forbidden,  ministration  and  service  are  com- 
manded." 

On  courage  for  truth's  sake :  —  "  Let  a  man  stand  in  virtue  and 
truth,  and  all  the  world  overcometh  him  not ;  for  if  they  overcome 
him  with  these,  then  they  overcome  God  and  his  angels,  and  then 
they  should  make  him  to  be  no  God.  Thus  good  men  are  com- 
forted to  put  away  fear,  since  be  they  never  so  few  nor  feeble,  they 
believe  that  they  may  not  be  discomfited.  Thus  the  words  of  Christ 
make  his  knights  to  be  hardy." 

His  views  of  compulsory  payments  may  be  gained  from  the  fol- 
lowing passage  :  —  "  True  it  is  that  tithes  were  due  to  priests  and 
deacons  under  the  old  law,  and  so  bodily  circumcision  was  then 
needful  to  all  men,  but  it  is  not  so  now,  under  the  law  of  grace. 


THE    LIGHT    OF    A    DARK    AGE.  33 

Christ,  however,  was  circumcised,  and  yet  we  read  not  where  he 
took  tithes  as  we  do ;  nor  do  we  read  in  all  the  gospels  that  he 
paid  them  to  the  high  priest,  or  bade  that  any  other  man  do  so. 
Lord,  why  should  our  worldly  clergy  claim  tithes,  and  offerings, 
and  customs,  from  Christian  people,  more  than  did  Christ  and  his 
apostles,  and  even  more  than  men  were  burdened  with  under  the 
law  ? " 

Our  lust  quotation,  on  the  duty  of  avowing  convictions,  ap- 
proaches the  sublime  :  —  "To  live,  and  to  be  silent,  is  with  me 
impossible  ;  the  guilt  of  such  treason  against  the  Lord  of  heaven 
is  more  to  be  dreaded  than  many  deaths.  Let  the  blow  therefore 
fall.  Enough  I  know  of  the  men  whom  I  oppose,  of  the  times  on 
which  I  am  thrown,  and  of  the  mysterious  providence  which 
relates  to  our  sinful  race,  to  expect  that  the  stroke  will,  ere  long, 
descend.     But  my  purpose  is  unalterable.     I  wait  its  coming  !  " 

It  is  scarcely  wonderful  that  a  reformer  who  promulgated  such 
views  should  be  greatly  distasteful  to  those  who  strongly  advocate 
ecclesiastical  establishments,  or  that  they  should  speak  of  the  mer- 
its of  Wiclif  as  "  greatly  exaggerated,"  or  of  "  his  wild  and  irreg- 
ular notions."  =^  It  will  be  gratifying,  however,  to  many  readers, 
to  learn  how  an  eminent  man  of  the  fourteenth  century  anticipated, 
in  the  darkness  and  gloom  of  so  remote  a  period,  sentiments  to 
which  the  lapse  of  four  hundred  and  fifty  years  has  only  added 
an  increasing  force  of  conviction. 

Forty-three  years  after  the  death  of  Wiclif,  the  town  of  Lutter- 
worth witnessed  a  strange  and  almost  incredible  scene.  The  Coun- 
cil of  Constance,  after  much  deliberation  upon  the  tenets  of  the 
reformer,  and  after  condemning  forty-five  of  his  tenets,  arrived  at 
the  conclusion  that  the  rector  of  that  parish  had  lived  and  died  an 
obstinate  heretic.  They,  therefore,  determined  that  his  dead  body 
should  be  treated  with  ignominy,  and  that  his  bones  should  be  dis- 
interred and  thrown  upon  a  dunghill.  Thirteen  years  afterwards, 
their  sentence  took  efiect.  Richard  Fleming,  the  Bishop  of  Lin- 
coln, and,  as  such,  the  diocesan  of  Lutterworth,  sent  his  commis- 

♦Milner's  Church  History,  m. 


TUE   LIGHT    OF   .v    DAUK    AGE. 


sary,  chancellors,  proctors,  doctors,  and  their  servants,  to  exhume 
Wiclif 's  body.      The  bones  were  burnt  to  ashes,  and  were  then 


LUTTERWORTH   BRIDGE. 
**  STREAM   INTO    WHICH   WICLIF'S   BONES    WERE   THROWN."  * 

cast  into  the  Swift,  a  river  running  close  by  the  town.  "  Then 
the  brook,"  says  Fuller,  "  conveyed  his  ashes  into  Avon ;  Avon 
into  Severn ;  Severn  into  the  narrow  seas ;  they  into  the  main 
ocean.  And  thus  the  ashes  of  Wiclif  are  the  emblem  of  his  doc- 
trine, which  was  dispersed  the  world  over."  Tradition  yet  marks 
out  the  spot  where  this  poor  and  ineffective  revenge  was  perpe- 
trated. 

The  whole  life  of  this  celebrated  reformer  was  devoted  to  the 
great  enterprise  of  exposing  ecclesiastical  enormities,  of  vindicating 
the  simplicity  of  gospel  truth,  and  of  resisting  the  inroads  of  eccle- 
siastical assumption.  That  such  pursuits  exposed  him  to  the  charge 
of  being  a  sour  and  turbulent  demagogue, — that  some  even  of  those 
who,  like  John  of  Gaunt,  patronized  him  so  long  as  he  served  their 
purpose,  afterwards  deserted  him,  and  that  many  of  his  friends 
drew  in  their  breath  with  a  shudder  at  the  boldness  with  which 
his  opinions  were  avowed,  —  who  can  doubt  ?  The  day  in  which 
his  singleness  and  nobility  of  purpose  should  be  manifested  was 

*  It  was  currently  reported  that  miracles  attended  this  circumstance,  express- 
ive of  the  displeasure  of  Heaven  at  this  rtnoval.  It  is  not  worth  while  to 
reUlo  them  in  detail. 


A 


THE    LIGHT    OF   A    DARK    AGE.  35 

long  in  coming.  And  it  can  never  fully  come  whilst  any  of  the 
errors  which  he  lived  to  expose  survive.  Yet  will  he  appear  to 
some  "  that  limb  of  the  devil,  enemy  of  the  church,  deceiver  of 
the  people,  idol  of  heretics,  mirror  of  hypocrites,  author  of  schisms, 
sower  of  hatred,  and  inventor  of  lies."  ^  But,  if  prejudice  can  enact 
attainders,  virtue  and  truth  can  reverse  them ;  and  Wiclif 's  name 
will  stand  an  example  to  posterity  of  the  moral  palingenesis  by 
which  the  apparently  destroyed  existence  lives  again  from  its  ashes, 
and  will  supply  encouragement  to  believe  that  successors  may  profit 
extensively  from  the  very  truths  which  now  cover  their  propounder 
with  ignominy  and  disgrace.  The  realms  of  oblivion  are  crowded 
by  those  who  wrote  or  spoke  in  accordance  only  with  the  senti- 
ments of  their  day.  The  renowned  are  mainly  those  who  opposed 
the  current. 

The  spirit  of  Wiclif 's  reformation  was  immensely  in  advance  of 
its  age.  He  was,  indeed,  to  some  extent,  an  advocate  for  the 
interference  of  the  civil  magistrate  in  matters  of  religion.  But  to 
what  extent  he  meant  this  interference  to  reach,  may  be  learned 
from  the  following  passage  : 

"  Let  what  they  solicit  from  the  magistrate  be  simply  protection, 
and  to  meet  the  evils  arising  from  the  withholding  of  settled  pas- 
tors from  the  established  cures ;  and  the  many  which  must  be 
inseparable  from  the  appointment  of  improper  men,  let  such  priests 
as  may  prefer  the  labors  of  the  evangelist  to  the  more  regular  duties 
of  the  parochial  shepherd,  be  allowed  to  act  on  that  preference." 

Wiclif 's  opinions  on  this  subject  are  susceptible  of  both  explana- 
tion and  apology. 

The  history  of  England  may  be  divided  into  two  great  periods, 
both  bearing  on  "  the  constitution  in  church  and  state."  The 
former  was  one  in  which  our  ancestors  sought  to  ally  the  spiritual 
with  the  civil  power,  that  they  might  ward  oflf  the  encroachments 
of  a  secular  hierarchy  ;  —  the  latter,  one  in  which  dire  experience 
caused  them  to  retrace  their  steps,  and  to  seek  relief  from  the 

*  If  Wiclif  was  occasionally  somewhat  coarse,  Walsingham,  the  papal  advo- 
cate, and  the  author  of  the  above  sentence,  is  more  than  his  peer. 


38  THE    LIGHT    OF    A    DARK    AGE. 

injuries  which  this  ecclesiastico-political  system  had  engendered. 
We  shall  have  many  occasions  to  refer  to  the  latter  class  of  opin- 
ions. At  present  we  may  mainly  dwell  on  the  former.  A  con- 
viction seized  the  most  far-seeing  men,  during  the  period  of  the 
Anglo-Norman  rule,  that  the  power  of  spiritual  despotism,  then 
represented  by  the  court  of  Rome,  "  had  increased,  was  increasing, 
and  ought  to  be  diminished ;"  and  to  accomplish  the  latter  purpose 
/as  a  leading  object  with  princes  or  people,  as  the  case  might  be, 
down  to  the  time  of  Henry  Y III.  The  reformation  was  caused  by 
that  monai'di's  sensual  desires,  only  as  it  is  the  last  drop  which 
causes  the  cup  to  overflow.  William  I.  was,  it  is  well  known, 
encouraged  by  Pope  Alexander  III.  to  undertake  the  conquest  of 
the  kingdom  of  Edward  the  Confessor,  that  by  such  means  Rome 
might  obtain  an  increased  power.  But  that  iron-willed  despot, 
when  his  victory  was  achieved,  was  so  far  from  yielding  the  all- 
submissive  compliance  expected  of  him,  that  not  even  the  menaces 
of  Hildebrand  himself  could  exact  from  him  the  homage  required 
by  the  Roman  see ;  and  he  strictly  forbade  all  relations  between 
his  subjects  and  the  pope  not  sanctioned  by  himself.  The  selfish- 
ness and  rapacity  of  his  successor,  Rufus,  were  great  reductions, 
for  the  time,  on  the  power  of  the  clergy,  who  long  remembered 
them.  Under  Henry  the  First  arose  the  dispute  respecting  invest- 
itures :  ^  Hildebrand  demanded  the  abolition  of  the  ceremony  by 
the  king ;  but  whilst  the  monarch  altered  the  ceremony  he  still 
retained  the  right  of  appointment,  and  thus  substantially  obtained 
the  victory.  The  daring  resistance  of  Thomas  a  Beckett  to  Henry 
II.,  who  claimed  the  right  of  punishing  felonious  offences  com- 
mitted by  ecclesiastics,  led  to  the  enactments  of  "  The  Constitu- 
tions of  Clarendon,"  which,  though  igsuing  in  the  great  and  pro- 
tracted troubles  consequent  on  that  archbishop's  murder,  drew  a 
stricter  limit  around  the  usurpations  of  the  papal  prerogative. 

*  Investituro  was  the  act  by  which  the  feudal  lord  placed  his  vassal  in 
actual  posscssiou  of  his  fief.  In  ecclesiastical  preferments,  it  was  originally 
effected  by  the  sovereign  delivering  to  the  newly-appointed  bishop  his  ring 
and  crosier. 


THE   LIGHT    OF    A   DARK   AGE.  37 

John  attempted  a  still  further  limitation,  though  his  shallow  and 
reckless  scheming  ended  only  in  his  own  debasement.      Under  the 
weak-minded  Henry  III.,  the  claims  prepared  by  the  pope  to 
appoint  to  vacant  benefices,  whilst  thus  trampling  on  the  rights  of 
patrons,  caused  great  disafiection  even  among  the  clergy  themselves, 
and  this  dissatisfaction  was  still  further  increased  by  the  immense 
sums  received  by  foreigners  bearing  the  titles  of  English  ecclesias- 
tics, for  services  which  they  performed  only  by  proxy.      In  this 
contest  respecting  "provisors,"  as  they  were  termed,  Grossteste, 
the  Bishop  of  Lincoln,=^  eminently  distinguished  himself  as  an 
opponent  of  the  pope,  by  his  refusal  to  induct  an  Italian  boy  into 
a  vacant  benefice.     Nor  must  we  be  unmindful  of  two  other  most 
signal  events  in  British  history,  — the  efforts  made  by  Cardinal 
Langton  to  gain  the  great  charter,  or  the  contention  till  death  of 
Simon  de  Montfort  in  behalf  of  a  parliamentary  representation,— 
both  of  which  occurrences  greatly  contracted  the  circle  of  ecclesias- 
tical sovereignty.     Edward  I.,  in  defiance  of  the  bull  of  Boniface 
YIII.,  and  of  the  excommunication  which  it  threatened  against 
those  who  taxed  the  clergy  against  his  authority,  had  recourse  to 
the  severest  exactions  from  the  ecclesiastics  to  support  the  expenses 
of  his  war  against  France;  and,  by  an  express  act,  he  prohibited 
his  clergy  from  sending  moneys  to  their  foreign  superiors.     In  the 
following  reign  — in  which  Wiclif  was  born  — so  alive  had  the 
people  become  to  this  subject,  that  one  of  the  complaints  against 
Edward  II.  was  that  he  had  permitted  bulls  from  the  Boman  see. 
In  fact,  the  civil  power  was,  in  those  days,  regarded  as  a  harbor 
of  refuge  from  the  distresses  consequent  on  hierarchical  tyranny. 
If  the  convictions  of  our  forefathers  shall  differ  in  some  respects 
from  our  own,  we  must  be  content  to  remember  that  their  experi- 
ence was  less  wide  and  extensive  than  that  of  a  later  age;   that 
learning  consists  greatly  in  un-learning ;  and  that  truths  of  the 
largest  magnitude  are  of  slow  and  often  almost   impenjeptible 
growth.      We  must  judge  our  forefathers  by  the  light  in  which 
they  lived ;  whilst  we  cannot  restrain  the  conviction  that  the  same 

*  "Terrificua  Papaj  redargutor,"  as  Camden  styles  him. 
4 


38  THE   LIGHT    OF   A   DARK    AGE. 

princrples,  opposed  to  the  same  errors,  would,  under  different  circum- 
stances, and  conjoined  with  a  wider  experience,  have  landed  them 
far  beyond  the  point  which  they  ultimately  reached.  The  suprem- 
acy of  God's  Word,  the  right  of  private  judgment,  the  voluntari- 
ness of  true  Christianity,  the  simplicity  and  energy  of  moral  power, 
the  self-contradiction  of  systems  of  worldly  policy  as  means  of 
advancing  the  progress  of  truth,  —  for  all  these  doctrines  were 
those  which  Wiclif  maintained,  —  are  principles  which  would  have 
carried  him  further  than  he  really  went.  The  inconsistency  was 
in  the  limited  degree  in  which  they  were  then  applied ;  the  truths 
are  immortal  and  all-sufficient.  We  may  not  reduce  them ;  we 
cannot  exaggerate  their  moral  power. 

Note. — The  author  confesses  a  general  obligation  for  the  matter  of  the 
preceding  chapter  to  Vaughan's  able  Life  of  Wycliffe. 


CHAPTER    II. 

WRITHINGS   OF    THE    DOWN-TKODDEN. 

"  0  terrible  excess 
Of  headstrong  will  !     Can  this  be  piety  1 "  —  Wordsworth. 


OTHING  is  proverbially  more  in- 
constant than  the  taste  of  monarchs. 
Of  this  the  history  of  all  palaces, 
especially  the  history  of  English 
palaces,  affords  incontestable  proof. 
"  Varium  et  mutabile  semyer^^ 
might  be  written  upon  each  portico 
and  pediment !  Winchester,  West- 
minster, Blackfriars,  Crosby  Hall, 
the  Tower,  Greenwich,  Theobald's,  Rich- 
mond, Hampton  Court,  Kensington,  and 
others,  down  to  Buckingham  Palace,  Brigh- 
ton and  Osborne,  what  "  thick-coming  fan- 
cies "!  St.  James'  and  Windsor  alone  seem 
permanent ;  yet  the  latter  has  undergone  nearly 
as  many  changes  as  all  the  rest  combined.  If 
these  variations  afford  no  proof  of  the  stability  of 
our  monarchs'  tastes,  they  at  least  demonstrate 
that  the  attachment  of  the  people  to  the  monarchy  is  no  fitful 
and  uncertain  thing.  To  appropriate  structures  of  which  the 
sovereign  has  grown  weary,  —  though  thousands,  perhaps  millions, 
of  the  nation's  money  have  been  profusely  lavished  on  the  magnifi- 
cent decoration  of  them,  —  into  hospitals  for  useless  sinecurists, 
maintained  at  the  public  expense,  might  seem  to  be  adding  insult 


40  WRITHING S    OF    THE    DOWiX-TROUDEN. 

to  injury.  Yet  this  has  been  the  uniform  course  of  palace 
transformations !  The  British  people  are  used  to  it.  They 
grumble,  exclaim,  resist,  threaten,  grow  furious,  and  —  submit. 

What  inhabitant  of  the  metropolis  is  ignorant  of  the  pleasures 
of  an  excursion  to  Hampton  Court  ?  Choose  a  sunny  day, —  a 
small  and  well-assorted  party, —  take  a  return  ticket  by  the  rail- 
way, and  you  have  within  your  reach  as  many  materials  for  enjoy- 
ment as  can  be  derived  from  fresh  air,  rich  scenery,  horticultural 
rarities,  the  wonders  of  ancient  and  modern  art, —  the  Cartoons  of 
llaphael  included, —  and  abundant  historical  associations.  You 
can  people  the  scene,  if  you  please,  with  the  successive  courts  of 
British  monarchs,  from  Henry  YIII.  down  to  George  II. ;  and, 
should  you  be  well  versed  in  the  history  of  female  costume,  you 
can  vary  the  dress  into  the  fashion  of  each  age  as  it  passes :  the 
cap-like  head  attire  of  the  court  of  Henry  YIII. ;  the  ruff  and  far- 
thingale of  Elizabeth  ;  the  thin  curls  of  the  date  of  Charles  I. ;  the 
hood  and  close  kerchief  of  the  time  of  Cromwell ;  the  negligent 
nakedness  of  the  court  of  Charles  II. ;  the  ring-fence,  called  a  hoop, 
of  the  period  of  Queen  Anne.  If  your  tastes  be  architectural,  it  is 
probable,  indeed,  that  you  will  receive  a  smart  shock  as  you  see 
Wolsey's  noble  Tudor  Gothic  side  by  side  with  Grecian  pillai*s 
and  porticos,  and  you  may  think,  somewhat  emphatically,  of 
Horace's  emblem,  which  represents  the  horse's  head  conjoined  with 
the  fish's  tail.  It  may  possibly  surprise  you  to  learn  that  8ir 
Christopher  Wren  himself,  no  inferior  man,  is  responsible  for  these 
incongruities.  But  he,  too,  could  plead  precedents ;  and  Inigo 
Jones  had  marshalled  the  way  to  false  taste  before  him.  Besides, 
when  royalty  commanded.  Wren  had  been  more  than  once  made  to 
sacrifice  —  as  in  the  re-building  of  St.  Paul's  —  his  own  tastes  and 
convictions.  Yet,  notwithstanding  every  apology,  it  must  be 
acknowledged  that  Wren  did  not  excel  in  alterations.  With  him, 
indeed,  they  were  never  restorations.  Lincoln  and  Westminster 
Abbey  cry  shame ;  and  the  visitant  to  Hampton  Court  deplores 
the  incestuous  union  which  he  there  witnesses !  "  Most  lame  and 
impotent  conclusion ! "     But  when  even  "  the  good  Homer  "  is 


WRITHINGS    OF    THE    DOWN-TRODDEN. 


41 


allowed  his  occasional  nod,  we  must  be  patient  if  Sir  Christopher 
should  sometimes  betray  a  similar  infirmity. 


HAMPTON    COURT. 


A  noble  place  is  Hampton  Court  in  which  to  study  modern 
English  history !  We  suggest  this  hint  to  parents,  and  advise 
them  now  and  then  to  abandon  the  labored  volumes  over  which 
their  children  are  poring,  and  to  give  their  lessons  in  some  place 
like  this  —  viva  voce.  The  course  of  the  projector  of  this  pile  is  in 
itself  a  high  moral.  How  industry  and  learning  can  lift  a  man 
from  littleness  ;  how  sensuality,  luxury  and  pride,  can  thrust  him 
down  from  greatness ;  how  insecure  is  the  tenure  of  the  mightiest 
possessions  ;  how  the  pomp  of  the  world  is  like  the  fata  morgana 
—  dazzling,  indeed,  but  airy  and  unsubstantial ;  how  the  man  who 
rises  suddenly  by  ambition  may  fall  like  lightning  down ;  how 
adversity  often  brings  out  of  the  humble  all  the  good  that  was  ever 
in  them ;  how  the  possessions  of  the  mind  transcend  and  outlast 
the  acquisitions  of  the  powerful ;  and  how  a  conscience-stricken 
death-bed  is  the  saddest  scene  on  this  side  of  the  infinite ;  —  all 
these  lessons,  and  many  more,  are  suggested  by  the  name  and  by  the 
4* 


42  WRITHINGS    OF    THE    DOWN-TRODDEN. 

ancient  palace  of  Cardinal  Wolsey.  Every  court  and  ornament 
recalls  some  passage  of  his  history.  Impasingly  went  forth  from 
under  these  arches  the  train  of  the  last  of  English  cardinals, —  the 
last,  at  least,  before  Pio  Nono  imparted  new  life  to  a  defunct  title, 
—  with  its  array  of  pursuivants,  esquires,  retainers,  and  even 
nobles ;  of  cross  and  basin  and  chalice ;  whilst  in  the  midst  of  all 
rode  forth, the  reverend  priest,  his  sumptuous  array  of  blazing  scar- 
let relieved  only  by  golden  stirrup  and  ermined  fur ;  himself  the 
personification  of  grandeur,  as  his  mule  was  meant  to  be  of  humil- 
ity ;  uniting  thus  the  opposite  emblems  of  godliness  with  worldly 
pride.  Sad  scene  !  sadder  even  in  its  triumphs  than  in  its  catas- 
trophe !  We  turn  from  the  bloated  rich  man  with  disgust ;  but 
when  we  hear  the  humbled  poor  man  ejaculating,  "  Vain  pomp 
and  glory  of  the  world,  I  hate  ye  !  "  we  feel  that  the  moralities  of 
the  tragedy  are  satisfied.  About  this  siwt  moved,  as  long  as  he 
could  move, —  after  Wolsey  had  resigned  Hampton  Court  to  his 
imperious  master,  —  Henry  VIII. ;  passing  here  through  his 
successive  phases  of  gayety,  gallantry,  extravagance,  selfish  hard- 
heartedness,  imperious  self-will,  cruelty,  wholesale  oppression, 
bloated  animalism,  ulcerated  death  by  inches  !  Here,  by  the 
strong  will  which  beat  down  More,  Wolsey,  the  pope,  his  succes- 
sive wives,  the  great  monastic  establishments,  and  which  only 
failed  before  Luther,  he  formed,  to  the  extensive  injury  of  his 
neighbors,  and  in  imitation  of  the  Anglo-Norman  sovereigns,  an 
enormous  park,  which  was  mercifully  de-chased  by  his  successor. 
Whatever  our  sympathy  with  Wolsey  may  be,  who  can  have  any 
with  the  brutal  tyrant  who  called  himself  his  lord  ? 

The  title  of  "  Head  of  the  Church  "  was  in  his  case  a  monstrous 
anomaly ;  the  Church  of  England  was  not  wont  to  set  a  layman 
at  its  head.  "  The  limits  of  the  authority  which  he  possessed  as 
such  were  not  traced,  and  indeed  have  never  been  traced, 
with  precision.  The  laws  which  declared  him  supreme  in 
ecclesiastical  matters  were  drawn  rudely,  and  in  general  terms. 
If,  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  the  sense  of  those  laws,  we 
examine  the  books  and  lives  of  those  who  founded  the  English 


VmiTHINGS   OF    THE   DOWN-TRODDEN.  43 

church,  our  perplexity  will  be  increased.  For  the  founders  of 
the  English  church  wrote  and  acted  in  an  age  of  violent  intel- 
lectual fermentation,  and  of  constant  action  and  reaction.  They, 
therefore,  often  contradicted  each  other,  and  sometimes  contra- 
dicted themselves.  That  the  king  was,  under  Christ,  sole  head 
of  the  church,  was  a  doctrine  which  they  all  with  one  voice 
affirmed;  but  those  words  had  very  different  signification  in 
different  mouths,  and  in  the  same  mouth  at  different  conjunctures. 
Sometimes  an  authority  which  would  have  satisfied  Hildebrand 
was  ascribed  to  the  sovereign  ;  then  it  dwindled  down  to  an 
authority  little  more  than  that  which  had  been  claimed  by  many 
ancient  English  princes,  who  had  been  in  constant  communication 
with  the  Church  of  Rome.  What  Henry  and  his  favorite  coun- 
sellors meant  at  one  time  by  the  supremacy,  was  certainly  nothing 
less  than  the  whole  power  of  the  keys.  The  king  was  to  be  the 
pope  of  his  kingdom,  the  vicar  of  God,  the  expositor  of  catholic 
verity,  the  channel  of  sacramental  grace.  He  arrogated  to  him- 
self the  right  of  deciding  dogmatically  what  was  orthodox  doctrine 
and  what  Avas  heresy,  of  drawing  up  and  imposing  confessions  of 
faith,  and  of  giving  religious  instruction  to  his  people.  He  pro- 
claimed that  all  jurisdiction,  spiritual  as  well  as  temporal,  was 
derived  from  him  alone,  and  that  it  was  in  his  power  to  confer 
episcopal  authority  and  to  take  it  away.  He  actually  ordered  his 
seal  to  be  put  to  commissions  by  which  bishops  were  appointed, 
who  were  to  exercise  their  functions  as  his  deputies  and  during  his 
pleasure.  According  to  this  system,  as  expounded  by  Cranmer, 
the  king  was  the  spiritual  as  well  as  the  temporal  chief  of  the 
nation.  In  both  capacities  his  highness  must  have  lieutenants. 
As  he  appointed  civil  officers  to  keep  his  seal,  to  collect  his  reve- 
nues, and  to  dispense  justice  in  his  name,  so  he  appointed  divines, 
of  various  ranks,  to  preach  the  gospel  and  to  administer  the  sacra- 
ments. It  was  unnecessary  that  there  should  be  any  imposition  of 
hands.  The  king  —  such  was  the  opinion  of  Cranmer,  given  in 
the  plainest  words  —  might,  in  virtue  of  authority  derived  from 
God,  make  a  priest ;  and  the  priest  so  made  needed  no  ordination 


4-1  WRITIllNUS   or    THE    DOWN-TRODDEN. 

whatever.  These  opinions,  Craiimer,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of 
less  courtly  divines,  followed  out  to  every  legitimate  consequence. 
He  held  that  his  own  spiritual  functions,  like  the  secular  functions 
of  the  chancellor  and  treasurers,  were  at  once  determined  by  a 
demise  of  the  crown.  When  it  was  objected  that  a  power  to  bind 
and  to  loose,  altogether  distinct  from  temporal  power,  had  been 
given  by  our  Lord  to  his  apostles,  some  theologians  replied  that 
the  powers  to  bind  and  to  loose  had  descended,  not  to  the  clergy, 
but  to  the  whole  body  of  Christian  men,  and  ought  to  be  exercised 
by  the  chief  magistrate,  as  the  representative  of  the  society. 
When  it  was  objected  that  St.  Paul  had  spoken  of  certain  persons 
whom  the  Holy  Ghost  had  made  overseers  and  shepherds  of  the 
faithful,  it  was  answered  that  King  Henry  was  the  very  overseer, 
the  very  shepherd,  whom  the  Holy  Ghost  had  appointed,  and  to 
whom  the  expressions  of  St.  Paul  applied."  =^ 

Like  Napoleon  with  his  iron  crown,  the  king  put  the  super- 
episcopal  diadem  upon  his  own  head ;  and  he  knew  well  how  to  give 
effect  to  the  motto,  "  Gare  qui  la  touche !  "  What  schemes  con- 
nected with  his  headship  may  have  been  projected  and  matured 
within  these  wails,  who  can  tell?  The  mode  by  which  Henry 
forced  his  clergy  into  the  acknowledgment  of  this  title  is  well 
known.  As  Wolsey  had  been  appointed  legate  by  bulls  from  the 
pope,  —  an  illegal  act,  —  the  king  proceeded  against  the  ecclesi- 
astics for  the  crime  of  acknowledging  that  authority,  and  obtained 
judgment  against  them  under  the  statute  of  praemunire,  which 
declared  their  possessions  forfeited.  Under  this  judgment,  he 
extorted  from  them,  in  addition  to  the  sum  of  one  hundred  and 
eighteen  thousand  pounds,  their  admission  of  the  coveted  title. 
This  designation  was  afterwards  confirmed  by  parliament,  and  set 
forth  the  astounding  proposition,  "  that  our  sovereign  lord,  his  heiis 
and  successors,  kings  of  this  realm,  shall  have  full  power  and 
authority  to  visit,  repress,  redress,  reform,  order,  coi-rect,  restrain 
and  amend,  all  such  errors,  heresies,  abuses,  contempts  and  enor- 
mities, whatsoever   they  be,  which  by  any  manner  of  spiritual 

*  Macanlay's  Hist,  of  England,  rol.  i.,  pp.  54 — 56.  "^ 


WllITHINUS    OF    THE    DOWX-TRODJDEN.  45 

authority  or  jurisdiction  ought  or  may  be  lawfully  reformed, 
repressed,  ordered,  redressed,  corrected  or  amended,  most  to  the 
pleasure  of  Almighty  God,  and  increase  of  virtue  in  Christ's  reli- 
gion, and  for  the  conservation  of  peace,  unity,  and  tranquillity  of 
this  realm,  any  usage,  custom,  foreign  authority,  prescription,  or 
any  other  thing  or  things  to  the  contrary,  notwithstanding." 

The  execution  of  the  maid  of  Kent,  and  of  Sir  Thomas  More 
and  Bishop  Fisher,  who  sympathized  with  her  hysterical  ravings, 
but  who  were  guilty  of  the  much  higher  ofience  of  denying  the 
king's  new-made  authority,  followed  rapidly  in  the  wake  of  this 
enactment. 

Hampton  Court  witnessed,  soon  after  this  period,  another  scene 
forming  a  consequence  of  this  new  assertion  of  ecclesiastical  author- 
ity. The  snake  of  popish  intolerance  —  "  scotched,  not  killed," — 
had,  during  the  latter  years  of  Henry's  life,  recovered  not  a  little 
of  its  former  influence.  Disgusted  with  his  new  wife,  Anne  of 
Cleves,  the  king  had  conceived  a  hatred  against  the  minister  who 
had  advised  the  marriage.  A  suspicion,  too,  that  he  was  secretly 
opposed  to  the  six  articles,  recently  passed  by  parliament,  had 
rendered  Cromwell  increasingly  obnoxious  to  the  papists.  These 
articles  asserted  that  the  sacrament  was  the  real  body  and  blood  of 
Christ ;  that  tlie  communion  in  one  kind  was  sufficient ;  that 
priests  should  not  marry ;  that  vows  of  chastity  were  binding ; 
that  private  masses  were  desirable,  and  that  auricular  confession 
was  necessary.  To  these  suspicions  Cromwell  fell  a  sacrifice. 
Other  victims  followed,  and  with  one  of  these  this  palace  is  asso- 
ciated. 

Dr.  Barnes,  a  man  of  distinguished  learning  and  piety,  was 
prior  of  the  Augustine  monastery  at  Cambridge.  He  greatly 
reformed  the  studies  of  that  university,  and  took  occasion  to 
expound  in  public  the  apostolical  epistles,  and  to  inveigh  against 
the  vices  of  the  clergy.  He  had  learned  from  Bilney  the  true  doc- 
trine of  salvation,  which  he  hesitated  not  to  proclaim ;  and  for  this 
offence  had  been  brought,  at  a  previous  period,  before  Wolsey,  at 
Weilipiinster.     "  What !  Mr.  Doctor,"  said  that  prelate,  "  had  you 


46  WRITHINGS   OF   THE   DOWN-TRODDEN. 

not  a  sufficient  scope  in  the  Scriptures  to  teach  the  people,  but  that 
my  golden  shoes,  my  pollaxes,  my  pillars,  my  golden  cushions,  my 
crosses,  did  so  sore  offend  you  that  you  must  make  us  ridiculum 
caput  amongst  the  people,  who  that  day  laughed  us  to  scorn  ?  " 
Barnes  replied  that  he  had  preached  the  truth  out  of  the  Scri^)- 
tures,  according  to  "  his  conscience  and  the  old  doctors."  He  was, 
however,  committed  to  the  custody  of  the  sergeaut-at-arms,  and 
was  on  the  Saturday  following  brought  up  before  the  bishops. 
The  prospect  of  martyrdom  so  terrified  the  poor  man  that  he  was 
induced  in  their  presence  to  abjure  his  heresies  ;  was  compelled  in 
St.  Paul's  church  to  ask  forgiveness  of  "  God  and  the  Catholic 
church,  and  the  cardinal's  grace  ;  "  and  was,  with  others  holding 
sentiments  similar  to  his  own,  marched  three  times  about  a  fire 
kindled  at  the  outer  gate  of  the  churcli,  and  declared  to  be  received 
once  more  into  the  body  of  the  faithful.  Yet  these  men  were, 
notwithstanding,  recommitted  to  prison.  Barnes,  by  some  means, 
made  his  escape  to  Antwerp,  where  he  enjoyed  the  friendship  of 
Luther,  Melancthon,  and  other  distinguished  reformers.  The 
King  of  Denmark  sent  him  as  his  ambassador  to  England,  where 
his  person  was  respected,  though  Sir  T.  More,  at  that  time  lord 
chancellor,  and  in  violation  of  the  toleration  which  he  had  advo- 
cated in  his  Utopia,  desired  his  apprehension  on  the  old  charge. 
When  his  mission  was  fulfilled,  Barnes  returned  to  the  continent, 
and  afterwards  revisited  London.  Ann  Boleyn  protected  and  pro- 
moted him.  Afterwards,  whilst  the  marriage  with  x\.nne  of  Cleves 
was  in  progress,  Henry  sent  him  ambassador  to  the  Duke  of 
Cleves,  and  expressed  his  satisfaction  at  the  manner  in  which 
Barnes  had  discharged  thait  office. 

But  Gardiner,  who,  after  being  the  friend  of  Wolsey,  had  sided 
with  the  king  in  the  matter  of  the  divorce,  and  had  recently  writ- 
ten his  treatise  "  De  vera  ohedientia"  in  favor  of  the  supremacy, 
was  now  lord  of  the  ascendant,  and  complained  to  the  king  of 
Barnes  and  two  of  his  friends,  Thomas  Garret  and  "William  Jerome. 
Ivi  consequence,  they  were  brought  before  Henty  at  Hampton 
Court.     The  particulars  of  the  interview  are  not  recorded.^  But 


WRITHINGS   OF   THE   DOWN-TRODDEN.  47 

the  result  was  that  the  king,  who  cherished  some  favor  for  Barnes, 
permitted  him  to  go  home  with  the  bishop  for  the  purpose  of  pri- 
vate conference.  The  result  may  be  anticipated.  Barnes  and  his 
companions  were  attainted  of  heresy,  and  sentenced  to  be  burned. 
Their  end  was  worthy  of  the  doctrines  they  had  proclaimed. 
When  brought  to  Smithfield,  Barnes  asked  for  the  sheriff :  "  Have 
ye  any  articles  against  me  for  which  I  am  condemned  ?  "  "  No." 
"  Is  there  any  man  else  that  knoweth  wherefor  I  die,  or  that  by 
my  preaching  hath  taken  any  error  ?  Let  them  now  speak,  and  I 
will  answer."  He  proceeded  to  add,  "  If  Dr.  Stephen,  Bishop  of 
Winchester,  have  sought  or  wrought  this  my  death,  either  by  word 
or  deed,  I  pray  God  to  forgive  him  as  heartily,  as  freely,  as  char- 
itably, and  as  sincerely,  as  Christ  forgave  them  that  put  him  to 
death.  And  if  any  of  the  council,  or  any  other,  have  sought  or 
wrought  it  through  malice  or  ignorance,  I  pray  God  forgive  their 
ignorance,  and  illuminate  their  eyes  that  they  may  see  and  find 
mercy  for  it." 

"  He  then,"  says  Fox.  "  begged  all  men  to  forgive  him ;  to 
bear  witness  that  he  detested  and  abhorred  all  evil  opinions  and 
doctrines  against  the  Word  of  God,  and  that  he  died  in  the  faith 
of  Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  he  doubted  not  to  be  saved.  With 
these  words  he  desired  all  the  spectators  to  pray  for  him,  and  then 
he  prepared  himself  to  suffer." 

Garret  and  Jerome  addressed  the  people  in  a  similar  manner ; 
the  latter  concluding  his  address  with  the  following  words : 

"  And  thus  do  I  now  yield  my  soul  up  unto  Almighty  God, 
trusting  and  believing  that  he,  of  his  infinite  mercy,  according  to 
the  promise  made  in  the  blood  of  his  Son  Jesus  Christ,  will  take 
it,  and  pardon  all  my  sins,  of  which  I  ask  him  mercy,  and  desire 
you  all  to  pray  with  and  for  me,  that  I  may  patiently  suffer  this 
pain,  and  die  in  true  faith,  hope  and  charity." 

The  three  then  took  an  affectionate  embrace  of  each  other,  w^ere 
fastened  to  the  stake,  and  bore  witness  in  their  death  to  the  faith 
of  Christ  and  to  the  energy  of  protestant  supremacy.^ 

*  Fox's  Acts  and  Monuments, 


48  WKITIIINUS   OF   THE   DOWN-TRODDEN. 

Bishop  Burnet,  summing  up  the  various  persecutions  of  this  ill- 
starred  reign,  sajs,  "  So  there  were  many  brought  into  the  bishop's 
courts,  some  for  teaching  their  children  the  Lord's  prayer  in  Eng- 
lish, some  for  reading  the  forbidden  books,  some  for  harboring  the 
preachers,  some  for  speaking  against  pilgrimages,  or  the  worship- 
ping and  adorning  of  images,  some  for  not  observing  the  church 
fasts,  some  for  not  coming  to  confession  and  the  sacrament,  and 
some  for  speaking  against  the  vices  of  the  clergy."  ^  The  catalogue 
is  sufficiently  large.  Thomas  Bernard  and  James  Merton,  bur?ied. 
Pearson,  Testwood  and  Filmer,  burned.  Adam  Damlip,  burned. 
Kirby  and  Clarke,  burned.  Anne  Askew,  Nicholas  Belenian, 
Jojin  Adams,  John  Lacells,  burned.  Hinton,  burned.  Hugh 
Latimer,  imprisoned.  Thomas  Bilney,  burned.  Byfield  and 
others,  burned.  Frith,  burned.  John  Lambert,  burned.  Bent 
and  Trapnel,  burned.  Thomas  Benet,  burned.  Launcelot,  John 
and  Giles  German,  burned.  Style,  burned.    John  Brown,  burned. 

Such  were  the  first  fruits  of  the  English  state-church !  In 
what  respects  did  it  differ  from  the  ecclesiastical  tyranny  which  it 
had  superseded  ? 

Edward  VI.  was  frequently  a  resident  in  the  palace  of  Hamp- 
ton Court,  and  his  diary  contains  the  following  entry  descriptive 
of  the  palace  at  this  period  : 

"  Monsieur  le  mareschal  came  to  me  at  Hampton  Court  at  nine 
of  the  clock,  being  met  by  the  Duke  of  Somerset  at  the  Wall  End, 
and  so  conveyed  first  to  me  ;  when,  after  his  master's  recommend- 
ations and  letters,  he  went  to  his  chamber  on  the  queen's  side,  all 
hanged  with  cloth  of  arras,  and  so  was  the  hall,  and  all  ray 
lodging." 

This  is  not  the  place  in  which  to  enter  upon  the  ecclesiastical 
proceedings  of  this  memorable  reign.  It  may  be  enough  to 
observe,  that  the  progress  of  the  reformation  exhibited  the  strong- 
est contrast  to  the  principles  which  could  alone  have  justified  it. 
The  Princess  Mary  might  justly  complain  of  persecution.     Ana- 

*  Burnet's  Reformation,  Book  in. 


WRITHINGS   OF   THE   DOWN-TRODDEN.  49 

baptists,  who  are  reported  to  have  been  very  numerous,  were  pro- 
scribed, and  many  of  them  burnt  in  various  parts  of  the  kingdom. 
George  Van  Parre,  a  Dutchman,  was  consigned  to  the  flames  for 
denial  of  the  divinity  of  Christ ;  Hooper  was  committed  to  the 
Fleet  for  not  wearing,  as  Bishop  of  G  loucester,  the  episcopal  vest- 
ments ;  and  a  commission  was  issued  empowering  Cranmer  and 
others  to  correct  and  punish  ^  those  who  would  not  conform.  The 
reluctance  of  the  young  king  to  sign  the  sentence  against  Joan  of 
Kent  is  well  known.     She  was,  however,  burnt  at  the  stake ! 

In  the  year  1558  Hampton  Court  exhibited  an  unusual  scene 
of  splendor  and  revelry,  in  connection  with  a  Christmas  visit  of 
Philip  and  Mary.  The  Princess  Elizabeth,  who  was  invited  to 
attend,  seems  on  this  occasion  to  have  manifested  no  dislike  to 
the  rites  of  the  Catholic  worship.  She  heard  matins  in  the  queen's 
closet  on  St.  Stephen's  day.  How  many  of  the  barbarities  and 
horrors  which  desolated  the  land,  and  poured  a  crimson  flood 
through  its  borders,  were  discussed  and  planned  in  this  palace,  is 
unknown.  But  it  is  obvious  to  remark,  that,  however  essentially 
intolerant  and  persecuting  the  spirit  of  popery  may  be,  it  per- 
petrated its  fierce  deeds,  during  this  reign,  as  during  others,  by 
means  of  the  mechanism  of  an  ecclesiastical  establishment.  And, 
though  we  do  not  confound  the  animus  of  the  papal  with  that  of 
any  protestant  system,  it  must  still  be  remembered  that  even 
popery  itself  would  be  comparatively  harmless  but  for  the  secular 
power  which  obeys  its  dictates.  Had  the  church  been,  as  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  reformation  demanded,  dissevered  from  the  state,  into 
what  comparatively  small  dimensions  would^the  "  acts  and  monu- 
ments of  British  martyrs"  have  been  reduced!  Papal,  episcopal, 
puritan,  —  the  degrees  of  intolerance  may  vary,  but  the  fact  of 
persecution  under  any  state-church  is  invariable. 

The  reconciliation  of  England  with  the  church  of  Rome  was  the 
signal  for  a  storm  of  vengeance.     The  alliance  of  the  queen  with 

*  Hallam  infers,  from  the  word  puniendus,  that  the  penalty  intended  was 
death  ;  but  Sir  J.  Mackintosh  urges  sufficient  reasons  to  avoid  this  conclusion. 
Hist.  Eng.,  vol.  ir.,  p.  318. 


50  WRITHINGS    OF    THE   DOWN-TRODDEN. 

Charles  V.,  her  marriage  with  Philip  of  Spain,  the  history  of 
her  mother's  divorce,  the  movement  bj  which  Lady  Jane  Grey 
had  so  nearly  possessed  the  throne,  the  instigations  of  Gardiner 
and  Bonner,  were  all  electric  elements  in  the  deep  thunder-cloud 
which  now  hung  over  the  ecclesiastical  horizon.  The  queen's 
headship  was  nominally  foregone ;  but,  as  the  pope's  supremacy 
was  not  acknowledged,  it  was  really  exercised.  The  old  statutes 
for  burning  heretics  were  revived.  Rogers,  Hooper,  Taylor,  were 
put  to  death  by  Gardiner,  to  try  the  example  of  severity  in  terri- 
fying the  rest.  On  its  failure,  Bonner  took  up  the  work  in  a 
spirit  akin  to  the  blood-thirstiness  of  a  famished  tiger.  Bradford, 
Ridley,  Latimer  and  Cranmer,  are  the  world-wide  names  of  some 
who  followed.  "  Turn  or  burn "  became  the  prevailing  motto  I 
Tomkins,  a  weaver,  whose  hand  Bonner  held  in  the  flame  of  a 
candle  till  the  skin  burst,  and  the  blood  flew  out  in  the  flice  of 
the  bystanders  ;  companies  of  martyrs  consigned  to  a  common  and 
miscellaneous  death ;  women  in  travail  executed,  and  their  just 
born  infants  committed  to  the  flames;  children  pitilessly  de- 
stroyed ;  Christian  men  driven  in  all  directions  into  foreign  coun- 
tries ;  one  martyr  forbidden  to  say  farewell  to  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren, come  out  to  take  their  final  leave  of  him  on  his  way  to 
execution ;  another  denied  fire  enough  to  put  an  end  to  the  inex- 
pressible torture  of  his  death ;  horrible  severities  in  prison,  where 
multitudes  perished  by  famine  and  wretchedness ;  —  these,  and 
many  similar  details,  from  the  memory  of  which  humanity  shrinks 
appalled,  testify  the  demoniacal  spirit  of  this  persecution.  Many 
of  the  exiles  formed  themselves  at  Frankfort  into  a  conffreo;a- 
tional  church.  They  disputed  respecting  the  liturgy ;  those  who 
opposed  it  joined  the  Presbyterian  discipline  at  Geneva;  those 
who  admitted  it,  after  many  debates  among  themselves,  became 
the  harbingers  of  English  puritanism. 

It  is  computed  that  in  this  reign  four  hundred  persons  were 
publicly  executed  for  their  religion. 

Again  Hampton  Court  experiences  a  change.  Elizabeth  has 
succeeded  to  the  throne,  and  holds  her  occasional  residences  here. 


WIUTHINGS    OF    THE    DOW^•-TRODDI^^  51 

According  to  the  testimony  of  an  eye-witness,  the  palace  in  this 
reign  exhibits  much  of  regal  magnificence.  The  canopy  is  still 
embroidered  with  the  name  of  Henry  VIII. ;  the  tapestry  is 
superb ;  one  of  the  cabinets  is  called  Paradise ;  the  gardens  are 
"  most  pleasant;  "  the  chapel  is  "  most  splendid;  "  "  in  the  centre 
of  the  area,  which  is  paved  with  white  stone,"  is  "  a  fountain  that 
throws  up  water,  covered  with  a  gilt  crown,  on  the  top  of  which  is 
a  statue  of  Justice."  The  reader  of  history  asks  in  vain  for  the 
counterpart  of  the  allegory ! 

A  protestant  sovereign  now  stood  in  the  place  of  the  pope, 
and  became  the  polar  star  of  hope.  The  more  pious  among  her 
clergy  believed  that  she  would  not  fail  to  remove  some  of  those 
minor  ceremonies  which,  while  they  fretted  men's  consciences,  were 
by  no  means  essential  to  the  protestant  establishment.  The  miti- 
gation of  the  censures  against  uniformity  in  worship,  the  change 
of  habits  during  divine  service,  the  abolition  of  some  minor  festi- 
vals, the  sign  of  the  cross  in  baptism,  the  use  of  the  ring  in  mar- 
riage, liberty  not  to  kneel  at  the  Lord's  supper,  —  these,  and 
others  like  them,  w«re  the  points  on  which  the  early  puritan? 
sought  relief.  Moderns  can  scarcely  sympathize  with  all  these 
difficulties ;  but,  because  they  were  points  of  conscientious  convic- 
tion, they  were  momentous  to  our  forefathers ;  and  all  that  they 
asked  was,  with  due  allowance  for  the  opinions  of  others  who  dif- 
fered from  them,  that  these  points  should  not  be  rigidly,  pertina- 
ciously and  authoritatively  enforced. 

But  the  queen  had  all  the  blood  of  Henry  VIII.  in  her,  and 
was,  like  him,  only  opposed  to  popery  because  it  limited  her  pre- 
rogative. The  most  careless  visitant  to  Hampton  Court,  who  wan- 
ders through  the  "Queen's  Gallery"  and  studies  the  pictures  of 
the  father  and  daughter  by  Holbein,  will  instinctively  feel  how 
dangerous  it  might  be  to  trifle  with  either  the  one  or  the  other. 
Elizabeth  was  resolute  in  maintaining  the  Act  of  Uniformity; 
and,  though  even  men  like  Walsingham,  Burleigh,  Sir  R.  Bacon, 
Leicester,  Sir  F.  Knollys,  and  many  other  noblemen,  knelt  at  her 
feet  on  behalf  of  the  persecuted  puritans,  she  was  still  inexorable. 


52  WRITHINGS   OF   THE    DOWN-TllODDEN. 

The  natural  consequence  was,  that  these  people  began  to  form  sep- 
arate congregations.  They  were  immediately  brought  to  trial,  and 
imprisoned.  But  law  could  not  stop  the  schism  which  had  begun, 
though  it  severely  punished  all  aiders  and  abettors,  by  suspension, 
deprivation,  imprisonment,  and  banishment.  The  issue  of  these 
proceedings  was,  that  from  some  counties  all  the  most  faithful 
ministers  were  exterminated,  whilst  the  services  of  the  church 
were  administered  by  men  of  inferior  ability  or  of  tarnished  char- 
acter. Even  the  parliament  ventured  in  defence  of  the  oppressed, 
and  two  bills  for  the  redress  of  these  severities  were  introduced  ; 
but  a  peremptory  message  from  the  queen  commanded  the  Com- 
mons to  abandon  their  proceedings,  to  withdraw  their  bills,  and  to 
introduce  no  more  measures  bearing  relation  to  religion.  The  con- 
den^nation  of  Udal,  and  his  death  in  prison ;  the  hanging,  after 
imprisonment,  of  two  ministers  and  a  layman,  for  distributing 
Brownist  tracts ;  the  trial  and  death  of  Greenwood  and  Barrow, 
for  adopting  the  same  sentiments ;  as  also  of  Penry,  who  was  cru- 
elly and  disgracefully  executed,  demonstrate  that,  how  glorious 
soever  the  da^^s  "  of  good  Queen  Bess  "  might  be  so  far  as  the 
national  character  was  maintained  among  foreign  potentates,  much 
of  its  domestic  administration  was  intolerable.  In  the  severity 
of  her  laws  the  queen  exceeded  every  predecessor. 

Great  were  the  hopes  entertained  by  the  puritan  party  at  the 
time  of  the  accession  of  James  I.  •  Were  not  monarchs'  opinions 
something  like  lovers'  promises,  we  might  have  expected  this  mon- 
arch to  bear  some  favor  towards  puritanism.  In  the  Advocates' 
Library,  Edinburgh,  is  still  preserved  a  document  entitled  "  The 
Confession  of  Faith,"  in  reality  the  first  Scottish  Covenant,  A.  D. 
1580  ;  and  the  first  name  appended  to  it,  at  an  imposing  distance 
from  all  others,  is 


amO)  j\^ 


WRITHINGS    OF    THE    DOWN-TRODDEX.  53 

Twenty-three  years,  however,  had  passed  since  the  king's  signature 
had  been  affixed  to  that  document,  and  James  I.  was  not  the  only 
one,  as  we  shall  observe  hereafter,  who  forgot  his  covenanted 
engagements.  The  same  city  preserves  another  instance  of  a  sim- 
ilar kind,  in  a  copy  of  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  many  of 
the  signatures  of  which  are  written  in  blood,  whilst  all  are  pre- 
ceded by  one  name  of  celebrity,  though  not  of  consistency  — 
Montrose.  Not  to  do  James  injustice,  we  readily  avow  that  we 
have  not  the  strongest  conviction  of  the  voluntary  agency  granted 
to  sovereigns  and  nobles  on  occasions  of  such  national  signature. 
But  let  that  pass.  Perhaps  James  might  recollect  certain  pas- 
sages in  his  early  life,  —  the  raid  of  Ruth ven,  for  instance, — 
which  struck  uncomfortably  on  his  notions  of  royal  prerogative ; 
whilst  the  puritan  speech,  — "  It  is  better  that  bairns  should 
greet  than  gray -headed  men,"  together  with  the  appellation  of 
"  God's  silly  vassal,"  bestowed  on  him  by  Andrew  Melville,  were 
not  likely  to  be  soon  forgiven.  There  were,  besides,  many  other 
causes  at  work  to  produce  this  altered  issue.  The  instructions  of 
Buchanan  had  contributed  to  make  James  a  learned  man ;  but  not 
a  fifty-Buchanan  power  could  have  made  him  a  wise  one.^  James' 
learning,  indeed,  only  manifested  his  real  weakness.  The  man 
who,  monarch  though  he  was,  could  employ  his  mind  in  comparing 
tobacco  to  the  fires  of  everlasting  punishment,  —  who  could  send 
forth  a  production  like  that  of  "  Dsemonology,"  and  who  was  to  be 
found  on  the  bench  whenever  a  trial  took  place  for  witchcraft  in 
any  of  the  courts  of  Scotland,  and  who  could  himself  direct  the 
application  of  the  torture  to  the  wretched  victims,  —  might  be  capa- 
ble of  acquiring  learning,  but  could  scarcely  be  of  improving  it. 
Self-important,  flippant,  conceited ;  continually  leaning  on  favor- 
ites who  wore  him  as  an  appendage  to  their  state;  his  constitu- 
tional firmness  lessened  by  at  least  occasional  intemperance ;  t  dis- 

*  When  asked  why  he  had  made  James  a  pedant,  Buchanan  answered,  "  I 
was  happy  to  be  able  to  accomplish  even  that!"  —  D*  Israeli's  Curiosities  of 
Literature. 

t  He  divided  his  time  between  his  standish,  his  bottle,  and  his  hunting.  — 
Wblwood. 

6* 


54  WRTTHINGS   OV    THE   DOWN-TRODDEN. 

trusted  by  the  Scottisk  religionists  as  hollow,  though  he  had 
praised  their  kirk  as  "  the  sincerest  kirk  in  the  world  ;  "  ^  con- 
victed repeatedly  of  falsehood  and  treachery  to  every  holy  cause ; 
—  such  was  the  man  whom  the  death  of  Queen  Elizabeth  promoted 
to  the  throne  of  Great  Britain ! 

James  had  sent  a  remonstrance  to  Elizabeth,  imploring  her  that 
"  the  puritans  might  be  relieved  of  their  present  strait."  During 
his  progress  from  Scotland  to  London,  at  the  rate  of  fifteen  miles 
a  day,  he  had,  however,  given  utterance  to  sentiments  by  no  means 
favorable  to  the  religious  party.  He  had  said  that  there  was  more 
pride  under  the  cap  of  Diogenes,  or  of  a  puritan,  than  under  a 
king's  crown.  He  acknowledged  that  he  had  read  more  papists' 
books  than  protestants' ;  though  this  reading,  he  declared,  had 
only  confirmed  him  in  the  protestant  religion.  He  had  avowed, 
moreover,  that  he  would  not  admit  a  conference  between  twelve 
papists  and  twelve  protestants,  **  because  he  might  lose  more  that 
would  not  be  satisfied,  than  he  could  win,  although  the  papists' 
side  were  convicted."  On  his  journey,  he  had  received  the  peti- 
tion of  nearly  a  thousand  ministers  —  hence  called  the  millenary 
petition  —  praying  for  relief  of  their  grievances.  As  an  answer 
to  this,  he  called  a  conference,  to  be  held  in  Hampton  Court  palace, 
on  Thursday,  January  12,  1603. 

The  visitant  to  the  palace  who  shall  endeavor  to  ascertain  the 
precise  room  in  which  this  conference  was  held  will  be  disap- 
pointed. It  was  probably  a  chamber  communicating  with  the 
exquisitely  adorned  room  which  stands  at  the  end  of  the  great 
banqueting-hall,  and  was  termed  at  that  day  "  the  interior  privy 
chamber."!  The  courts  of  the  palace  presented,  on  the  14th  of 
January,  —  which  was  the  real  date  of  the  conference,  —  a  some- 
what unusual  appearance.  Rochets,  lawn,  and  square  caps,  desig- 
nated the  numerous  ecclesiastical  party,  on  the  one  hand ;  whilst 
to  encounter  them,  on  the  other,  were  only  four  plainly-attired 

•    *  Sully  also  mentions  the  distrust  with  which  he  always  regarded  James.  — 
Book  XIV. 
t  Neal  calls  it  the  drawing-room. 


WRITIIINGS    OF   THE   DOWN-TRODDEN.  55 

puritans,  —  men,  liowever,  of  the  highest  standing.  The  king  was 
to  decide  between  them.  Some  of  these  divines  deserve  a  passing 
comment.  There  was  Whitgift,  the  primate,  the  strong-hold  of 
the  anti-puritan  party,  —  a  passionate  and  vigorous  partisan,  not 
without  fits  of  moderation,  but  a  restrainer  of  the  liberty  of  the 
press,  and  a  determined  persecutor.  By  his  side  was  Bancroft, 
Bishop  of  London,  whose  preferment  was  obtained  by  a  sermon, 
preached  at  Paul's  Cross,  against  the  puritans ;  the  dictator  to 
the  archbishop,  and  the  manager  of  his  ecclesiastical  affairs,  —  a 
man  bitter,  resolute,  unsparing,  well  described  by  Bishop  Kennet 
as  "  a  sturdy  piece,"  who  proceeded  with  rigor,  severity,  and 
wrath.  There  was  also  Bilson,  who  had  written  a  celebrated 
defence  of  episcopacy ;  with  others,  whose  names  are  less  known 
to  posterity.  On  the  other  side  were  Dr.  Rainolds,  reputed  the 
most  learned  man  of  his  times,  the  vigorous  opponent  of  Bellar- 
mine,  the  answerer  of  Bancroft,  and  the  refuser,  from  conscien- 
tious scruples,  of  a  bishopric,  offered  by  Elizabeth ;  Br.  Sparke, 
the  defender  of  puritanism  against  Whitgift,  in  public  conference, 
at  Lambeth,  —  a  divine  of  great  learning,  and  exemplary  life ; 
Dr.  Chadderton,  also  an  eminent  scholar,  and  master  of  Emman- 
uel College,  Cambridge,  tutor  of  Bishop  Bedell,  and  one  of  the 
translators  of  King  James'  Bible ;  and  Mr.  Knewstubs,  formerly 
fellow  of  St.  John's,  Cambridge,  but  now  under  suspension,  in 
consequence  of  his  refusal  to  sign  "  Whitgift's  Three  Articles." 

Dr.  Barlow,  Dean  of  Chester,  who  has  given  an  account  of 
these  proceedings,  at  which  he  was  present,  with  the  suppressions 
of  a  partisan,  tells  us  that,  as  "  the  deans  and  doctors  attended 
my  lords  the  bishops  into  the  presence-chamber,  there  we  found, 
sitting  upon  a  form,  the  agents  for  the  millenary  plaintiffs." 
Here  they  were  left,  whilst  the  ecclesiastics,  attended  by  the  lords 
of  the  privy-council,  were  summoned  to  the  king's  chamber,  and 
the  door  was  shut. 

Small,  indeed,  had  been  the  probability,  from  the  very  terms  in 
which  this  convocation  was  announced,  that  any  .important  conces- 
sions would  be  made.     The  king's  proclamation  had  already  stated 


56  WRITHINGS   OF    THE    DOWN-TRODDEN. 

that  he  was  "  determined  to  preserve  the  ecclesiastical  state  in  such 
form  as  he  found  it  established  by  law,  only  to  reform  such  abuses 
as  he  should  find  apparently  proved."  The  misgivings  of  Whit- 
gift,  respecting  the  anti-episcopal  influence  of  "  the  Scotch  mist," 
were  entirely  superfluous ! 

The  entrance  of  his  majesty  constituted  the  assembly.  "  He 
sat  down  in  his  chair,  removed  forward  from  the  cloth  of  state  a 
'pretty  distance.'"  "His  summoning  the  assembly  together 
was,"  he  said,  "no  novel  device,  but  according  to  the  example 
of  Christian  princes,"  instancing  Henry  VIII.,  Edward  VI.,  and 
last,  "  the  queen  of  famous  memory."  As  yet  he  saw  no  cause 
to  alter  anything  done  by  his  predecessors ;  but  thanked  God  —  at 
which  words  he  put  oft"  his  hat  —  "  for  bringing  him  into  the  prom- 
ised land,"  &c.  Yet,  as  corruptions  might  creep  into  the  best- 
ordered  community,  his  purpose  was  to  inquire  into  them,  and 
cure  them,  if  scandalous ;  but,  if  frivolous,  "  to  cast  a  sop  into 
Cerberus'  mouth,  that  he  may  never  bark  again." 

To  follow  the  debate,  if  such  it  can  be  termed,  through  the 
whole  of  the  questions,  would  occupy  more  space  than  would  be 
interesting  to  the  reader.  Let  it  suffice  to  make  a  few  extracts 
from  the  strange  admixture. 

The  first  day  was  principally  occupied  by  objections  taken  by 
the  king  himself  to  various  parts  of  the  church  ritual.  Galloway, 
who  was  present  at  some  subsequent  parts  of  the  conference, 
declares  that  the  bishops,  on  their  knees,  entreated  his  majesty  not 
to  consent  to  any  alteration,  lest  it  should  be  regarded  as  affixing  a 
stigma  on  their  past  treatment  of  the  puritans.  Bishop  Andrewes, 
clerk  of  the  closet,  declares  that  the  king  did  on  that  day  wonder- 
fully play  the  puritan.  It  is  difficult  to  reconcile  this  with  Bar- 
low's statement,  who,  after  speaking  with  unbounded  admiration 
of  James'  "  understanding,  speech  and  judgment,"  attributes  to 
him  this  sentence,  "  that,  since  he  was  the  age  of  his  son  —  ten 
years  old  —  he  ever  disliked  their  (the  puritans')  opinions :  as  the 
Saviour  of  the  world  said,  though  he  lived  among  them,  he  was 
not  of  them."     But  the  king  was  a  bundle  of  incongruities,  and 


WRITHINGS   OF   THE   DOWN-TRODDE!;  57 

the  divines  who  represented  the  Church  of  England  were  equally 
notorious  for  flattery  of  the  monarch,  and  for  misrepresentation  of 
such  portions  of  the  conference  as  did  not  coincide  with  their 
views.=^ 

On  the  second  day,  nearly  the  same  party  was  again  assembled, 
the  king  being,  however,  accompanied  by  his  son,  Prince  Henry. 
After  an  introduction,  as  before.  Dr.  Eainolds,  on  the  part  of  the 
puritans,  opened  his  case.  Taking  exception  to  certain  parts  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  church,  especially  a  portion  of  the  sixteenth 
article,  he  was  interrupted  by  Bancroft,  who  besought  the  king  to 
remember  the  ancient  canon,  "that  schismatics  should  not  be 
heard  against  bishops."  Bancroft  proceeded  to  complain  of  the 
inconsistency  of  men  who  had  once  subscribed  the  articles  now 
speaking  against  them ;  and  complained  that  the  objectors  were 
wanting  in  due  regard  to  the  orders  of  the  church,  in  that  they 
came  attired  in  Turkey  gowns  instead  of  their  proper  college  uni- 
forms. (It  will  be  remembered  that  one  prominent  puritan  objec- 
tion arose  out  of  ecclesiastical  habiliments.)  But  the  king  ruled 
that  Bancroft  was  out  of  order,  though  Bainolds  had  offensively 
trespassed  in  traducing  the  church.  Among  other  topics,  Bai- 
nolds urged  the  importance  of  a  new  translation  of  the  Scriptures. 
Bancroft  testily  replied,  that  if  every  man's  humor  should  be  fol- 
lowed there  would  be  no  end  of  translation.!  But  the  king 
favored  the  request,  providing  the  new  translation  were  without 
marginal  notes,  saying  that  he  had  found  some  of  them  in  a  Gen- 
eva translation,  which  taught  disobedience  to  kings.  The  sup- 
pression of  popish  books  was  next  urged.  On  which  it  pleased  his 
majesty  to  tell  Dr.  Bainolds  "  he  was  a  better  collegeman  than 
statesman,"  and  that  the  permission  of  such  books  was  by  warrant, 
to  keep  up  the  schism  between  the  seculars  and  Jesuits.     Bainolds 

*  Barlow  has  certainly  reported  the  conference  in  an  extremely  ex  parte  man- 
ner. He  has  suppressed  all  the  king's  objections  to  the  Church  of  England. 
Neal  tells  us,  on  the  authority  of  Dr.  Jackson,  that  Barlow,  on  his  death-bed, 
repented  of  the  injustice  his  narrative  had  done  to  the  adverse  party. 

t  Barlow. 


58  WRITHINGS   OF   THE   DOWN-TRODDEN. 

again  desired  that  every  parish  might  be  provided  with  a  learned 
minister.  The  king  declared  that  there  were  more  learned  men 
already  than  maintenance  for  them ;  and  Bancroft  besought  his 
majesty  to  let  them  rather  have  a  praying  ministry ;  for  that 
there  was  too  much  of  preaching,  and  too  little  of  praying, 
already.^     James,  well  pleased,  assented  to  these  observations. 

When  the  Bishop  of  London  petitioned  "  that  pulpits  might 
not  be  made  pasquils,  wherein  every  humorous  or  discontented  fel- 
low might  traduce  his  superiors,"  the  king  threatened  "  that  if  he 
should  but  hear  such  an  one  in  a  pulpit,  he  would  make  him  an 
example ;  concluding  with  a  sage  admonition  to  his  opponents,  that 
every  man  should  solicit  and  draw  his  friends  to  make  peace ;  and 
if  anything  were  amiss  in  the  church  officers,  not  to  make  the 
pulpit  the  place  of  personal  reproof,  but  to  let  his  majesty  hear  of 
it  —  yet  by  degrees  !  " 

The  next  point  was  a  sore  one,  and  related  to  subscription. 
Rainolds  said  that  there  was  no  objection  to  subscribe  to  the  arti- 
cles, and  to  the  king's  supremacy ;  but  that  there  were  other 
points  to  which  serious  objections  were  felt ;  among  ofliers,  to  the 
books  called  apocryphal.  The  bishops  were  here  somewhat  at  a 
loss ;  till  the  monarch  himself,  with  a  vast  display  of  useless  and 
impertinent  learning,  came  in  to  their  rescue,  concluding  with  the 
observation,  as  he  turned  to  the  lords,  "  What,  trow  ye,  make 
these  men  so  angry  with  Ecclesiasticus  ?  By  my  soul,  I  think  he 
was  a  bishop,  or  else  they  would  never  use  him  so." 

Certain  other  of  the  puritan  objections  were  afterwards  raised 
seriatim.  The  day  was  now  closing,  and  the  patience  of  the  king 
was  ebbing  fast.  When,  therefore,  Rainolds  proceeded  to  ask  for 
"  liberty  of  prophesying,"  James  broke  out  into  a  flame.  "  I 
will  have  one  doctrine,  one  discipline,  one  religion  in  substance  and 
ceremony.  Never  speak  more  to  that  point,  how  far  you  are 
bound  to  obey !  " 

After  other  observations  of  the  same  kind,  he  asked  if  they  had 

*  Elizabeth  was  acoustomed  to  say  that  two  or  three  preachers  in  a  county 
were  enough. 


••.YUJTIllNr.S   OF    THE    DOWN-TRODDEN.  59 

anything  more  to  say.  Upon  their  answering  in  the  negative,  he 
ended  the  conference,  declaring,  "  If  this  be  all,  I  shall  make  them 
conform  themselves,  or  I  will  harry  them  out  of  this  land,  or  do 
worse  ! " 

The  utter  indecency  of  the  king's  conduct  was  only  to  be  sur- 
passed by  that  of  the  bishops.  Bancroft  declared  "  he  was  fully 
persuaded  that  his  majesty  spoke  by  the  instinct  of  the  Spirit  of 
God  !  "  Lord  Cecil  declared  that  they  were  much  bound  to  God, 
who  had  given  to  the  king  an  understanding  heart.  And  the  lord 
chancellor  added,  that  he  had  never  understood  the  conjunction 
of  the  monarch  and  the  priest  till  that  day.*  Barlow  adds  that 
the  king  was  "  a  living  library  and  a  walking  study."  Comment 
is  utterly  superfluous  ! 

The  third  day's  conference  was  worthy  of  its  precursors.  During 
a  considerable  period  the  puritans  were  kept  waiting  in  the  outer 
chamber,  whilst  the  divines  of  the  church  were  endeavoring  within 
to  satisfy  the  king  —  no  difficult  matter  —  respecting  some  points 
of  his  prerogative  relating  to  the  church,  especially  the  High  Com- 
mission Court  and  the  ex-officio  oaths. 

The  king  said  that  he  regarded  subscription  as  wise  and  requi- 
site. "  If  any,  after  things  are  well  ordered,  will  not  be  quiet  and 
show  his  obedience,  the  church  is  better  without  him,  and  he  is 
worthy  to  be  hanged.  Better  that  one  perish,  than  the  whole 
body." 

He  then  described  the  ex-offijcio  oath,  "  in  such  a  compendious 
but  absolute  order,  that  all  the  lords  and  the  rest  of  the  present 
auditors  stood  amazed  at  it."t 

Whit  gift :  "  Undoubtedly  his  majesty  speaks  by  the  special 
assistance  of  God's  spirit." 

Baiicroft,  on  his  knees :  "  I  protest  that  my  heart  melts  within 
me  with  joy  that  x\lmighty  God  has  given  us  such  a  king,  as,  since 
Christ's  time,  the  like  hath  not  been." 

*  Barlow.     Warburton  observes,  in  his  notes  on  Neal,  "  Sancho  Panza  never 
made  a  better  speech,  nor  more  to  the  purpose,  during  his  government." 
t  Barlow. 


60  Vv-]UTinXG3    OF    THE    DOWN-TKODDEN. 

This  sentiment  was  unanimously  applauded ! 

After  the  discussion  of  questions  regarding  the  high  commis- 
sion, and  plans  for  instituting  schools  and  appointing  ministers  in 
Ireland  and  the  border,  the  puritan  ministers  were  called  in  for  the 
last  time,  but  it  was  now  only  to  receive  the  royal  pleasure  touch- 
ing the  points  in  issue.  The  king  announced  to  them  the  parsi- 
monious alterations  agreed  on  in  their  absence ;  gave  them  a  special 
exhortation  to  unity  —  that  is,  to  uniformity  ;  —  and,  in  answer 
to  requests  for  indulgences  to  weak  consciences,  said,  among  other 
matters  : 

"This  is  just  the  Scottish  argument;  for  when  anything  is 
there  concluded  which  dislikes  some  humors,  the  only  reason  why 
they  will  not  obey  is,  that  it  stands  not  with  their  credit  to  yield, 
having  so  long  time  been  of  the  contrary  opinion.  I  will  none  of 
that ;  and,  therefore,  either  let  them  conform  themselves,  and  that 
shortly,  or  they  shall  hear  of  it !  " 

And  thus  ended  the  Hampton  Court  Conference. 

Contemporary  accounts  agree  in  their  description  of  the  insult- 
ing nature  of  this  whole  council.  One  of  the  number  said  that  he 
now  saw  that  "  a  puritan  was  a  protestant  frightened  out  of  his 
wits."  The  king,  writing  to  Scotland,  says  that  "  he  had  soundly 
peppered  off  the  puritans ; "  and,  moreover,  "  They  fled  me  so 
from  argument  to  argument,  without  ever  answering  me  directly, 
that  I  was  forced  to  tell  them  that,  if  any  of  them,  when  boys, 
had  disputed  thus  in  the  college,  the  moderator  would  have  fetched 
them  up  and  applied  the  rod."  Sir  J.  Harington  said,  "  The  king 
talked  much  Latin,  and  disputed  much  with  Dr.  Rainolds,  telling 
the  petitioners  that  they  wanted  to  strip  Christ  again,  and  bade 
them  get  away  with  their  snivelling."  The  puritans  were  evi- 
dently borne  down  and  confounded ;  no  one  point  was  thoroughly 
debated ;  the  prelates  interposed  the  most  unbecoming  interrup- 
tions ;  the  king  was  witness,  advocate,  judge  and  jury,  by  turns ; 
and  the  whole  debate,  if  such  it  could  be  termed,  was  a  mockery 
of  the  ends  for  which  it  had  been  professedly  summoned.  "  This 
great  mountain,"  says,  Heylin,  too  truly,  "  which  had  excited  so 


WIIITHINGS    OF    THE  DOWN-TEODLEN.  61 

much  expectation,  was  delivered  only  of  a  mouse.  The  millenary 
plaintiffs  have  gained  nothing  by  their  fruitless  travail,  but  the 
expounding  of  the  word  absolution  by  remission  of  sins,  the  qual- 
ifying of  the  rubric  about  private  baptism,  the  adding  of  some 
thanksgivings  at  the  end  of  the  litany,  and  of  some  questions  and 
answers  at  the  close  of  the  catechism."  "  In  the  accounts  that  we 
read  of  this  meeting,"  says  Hallam,  "  we  are  alternately  struck 
with  wonder  at  the  indecent  and  partial  behavior  of  the  king.  It 
was  easy  for  a  monarch  and  eighteen  churchmen  to  claim  the  vic- 
tory, be  the  merits  of  their  dispute  what  they  might,  over  four 
abashed  and  timid  adversaries."  Let  it  be  also  observed  that 
these  men  were  not  selected  by  the  puritan  party,  and  that  the  four 
were  not  even  agreed  among  themselves  as  to  the  points  at  issue. 
Well  might  their  brethren  say,  "  Therefore  the  puritan  ministers 
offer —  if  his  majesty  will  give  them  leave  —  in  one  week's  space 
to  deliver  his  majesty,  in  writing,  a  full  answer  to  any  argument 
or  assertion  propounded  in  that  conference  by  any  prelate ;  and  in 
the  mean  time  they  do  avow  them  to  be  most  vain  and  frivolous  !  " 
The  preconcerted  scheme  of  which  this  conference  was  only  the 
exponent  was  soon  made  apparent  by  a  royal  proclamation, 
March  5,  1603.  The  king  declared  that,  after  listening  to  "  the 
exceptioiiS  of  the  nonconformists,  which  he  had  found  very 
slender,"  and  after  yielding  some  explanations  for  their  "  satisfac- 
tion," "  he  now  requires  and  enjoins  all  his  subjects  to  conform  to 
the  liturgy,  as  the  only  public  form  established  in  this  realm ;  and 
admonishes  them  not  to  expect  any  further  alterations,  for  that 
his  resolutions  were  absolutely  settled."  The  Book  of  Canons  was 
iunnediately  adopted  by  the  convocation,  in  which  it  was  set  forth 
that  those  denying  the  royal  supremacy,  or  the  orthodoxy  of  the 
lilngiish  church,  or  the  congruity  of  the  public  service  to  the  Vi^ord 
of  God,  or  usserting  the  erroneousness  of  the  Articles,  the  cere- 
monies of  the  church,  or  administration  of  its  prelacy,  or  maintain- 
ing the  legitimacy  of  ministers  not  established  by  law,  or  favoring 
conventicles,  or  holding  other  anabaptist  errors,  should  be  excom- 
6 


62  WEITHINGS   OF   THE   DOWN-TRODDEN. 

municated,  and  only  restored  by  an  arclibishop  after  due  and  pub- 
lic recantation. 

The  effect  of  these  enactments  was  subsequently  aggravated  by 
the  publication  of  the  "  Book  of  Sports,"  which  allowed,  after 
divine  service,  "  all  lawful  recreations,"  but  prohibited  all  puritans 
and  recusants  from  the  indulgence. 

Under  these  canons,  it  was  computed  that  fifteen  hundred  min- 
isters were  suspended. 

In  relating  this  conference,  mention  has  been  made  of  the  names 
of  four  ministers  of  reputation,  though  they  were  not  actually 
leaders  among  the  puritan  party.  This  is,  perhaps,  the  proper 
place  to  add  the  names  of  a  few  others,  who,  in  or  before  the  reign 
of  James,  were  conspicuous  for  similar  opinions.  That  the  party 
was  very  considerable  is  obvious,  if  from  nothing  else,  yet,  at  least, 
from  the  number  of  names  attached  to  the  "  millenary  petition ;  " 
that  it  comprehended  men  of  the  highest  position,  both  in  church 
and  state,  has  been  already  shown.  Detesting  popery,  because  it 
obscured  the  gospel,  because  of  its  essential  intolerance,  and  because 
it  repressed  liberty  of  thought  and  progress,  it  had  been  the  design 
of  the  early  puritans  to  substitute  a  spiritual  religion  in  its  stead. 
They  were  not  precisely  agreed  how  far  it  might  be  desirable  to 
go ;  but  all  were  of  opinion  that  they  might  advance  far  beyond 
the  point  reached  already,  without  hazard.  They  had  therefore 
witnessed,  with  surprise  and  alarm,  the  sudden  check  given,  by 
Cranmer's  means,  to  the  progress  of  the  reformation.  They 
exclaimed  against  the  arbitrariness  of  so  sudden  a  pause  in  reform, 
and  urged  upon  the  higher  powers  points  in  which  it  appeared  to 
them  that  further  amendment  was  indispensable.  Could  the 
stream  have  rolled  onward,  the  muddy  waters  would  soon  have 
wrought  themselves  clear,  and  the  reformers  would  have  seen 
wherein  the  channel  was  defective.  But  as  yet  they  had  never 
recognized  the  alliance  between  the  ecclesiastical  and  civil  powei*s 
as  the  great  instrument  of  their  sorrow ;  and  by  admitting  it  they 
involved  themselves  in  endless  contradictions,  and  knotted  the 
whip  which  lacerated  their  own  flesh.     The  error  mainly  consisted 


WRITHINQS   OF    THE   DOWX-TRODDKN.  63 

iu  setting  up  the  model  of  the  Jewish  polity  as  the  law  of  the 
Christian  church.  Lacking  a  special  revelation  to  point  out  who 
were  the  peculiar  people,  and  what,  to  its  very  letter,  was  the  be- 
lief they  should  hold,  the  notion  was  a  mere  dream,  a  phantom,  an 
"  airy  nothing."  It  seemed  clear  to  them  that  they  held  the 
truth,  and  should,  therefore,  be  protected,  whilst  others  were  in 
error,  and  their  opinions  should  be  extirpated.  But  they  forgot 
that  there  Is  more  self-delusion  in  the  world  than  absolute  hyix>c- 
risy ;  and  that  the  same  doctrine  was  preached  on  the  opposite  side 
against  them.  The  distinction  was  not  only  unfair,  but  such  as  it 
would  prove  impossible  for  any  civil  power  to  make.  Protestant- 
ism destroying  puritanisra  was  to  them  murder;  protestantism 
destroying  anabaptism,  or  popery,  or  Arianism,  was  no  murder  at 
all.  The  only  defence  which  can  be  offered  for  this  is,  that  it 
v.'as  the  error  of  the  times.  The  apology  will  avail  as  well  for  the 
persecutor  as  the  persecuted.  It  is  not  without  some  force  as 
applied  to  men ;  but  incorrect  principles  deserve  no  favor,  and 
indulgence  to  them  is  high  treason  to  truth. 

Yet  the  position  in  which  the  puritans  stood  had  much  which 
rendered  it  unutterably  galling  and  intolerable.  Not  knowing,  as 
yet,  by  long  experience,  the  anomalous  influence  of  civil  power 
over  spiritual  men,  they  might  well  wonder  how  those  who,  from 
their  very  position,  ought  to  be  seeking  the  same  great  objects  as 
themselves,  should  —  only  because  the  puritans  were  in  earnest 
—  first  forsake,  and  then  trample  them  down.  War  between 
reformers  and  Roman  Catholics  they  could  undei-stand ;  but  this 
was  more  than  a  civil  war  —  it  was  fratricidal.  The  wounds  were 
the  cruel  infliction  of  a  brother;  the  puritan  thus  was  struck 
by  the  very  hand  which  he  prayed  for.  A  few  of  the  leaders  of 
this  party  may  be  briefly  distinguished. 

At  the  foot  of  the  old  London-bridge  formerly  stood  a  church, 
destroyed  by  the  great  fire  of  London,  but  long  since  rebuilt,  bearing 
the  name  of  St.  Magnus.  Here,  during  two  years,  preached  a  poor 
and  infirm  old  man,  who  had  acted  a  conspicuous  part  in  the  great 
movements  of  his  day ;  but  now,  battered  and  worn,  had  become  an 


64  WRITHINGS   OF   THE   DOWN-TRODDEN 

object  of  contempt  to  the  high  persecuting  powers.  He  was  called 
Father  Coverdale.  He  was  one  of  the  first  preachers  of  protest- 
antism, when  Henry  VIII.  renounced  the  authority  of  the  pope. 
In  conjunction  with  William  Tindal,  —  afterwards  burnt  for  her- 
esy at  Wilford,  near  Brussels,  —  he  had  translated  and  printed, 
for  the  first  time,  the  Bible  in  the  English  language,  —  a.  d, 
1535.  A  second  edition  was  published  in  1537.  When  Crom- 
well procured  liberty  from  Henry  VIII.  to  print  the  English 
Bible,  Coverdale  was  engaged  to  superintend  it  at  Paris,  where  he 
narrowly  escaped  the  tortures  of  the  inquisition.  Persecuted 
by  the  bishops  in  England,  he  was  compelled  to  retire  to  Germany, 
where  Lord  Cromw^ell  maintained  him.  Under  Edward  VI.,  he 
was  made  Bishop  of  Exeter,  and  was  associated  with  Cmnmer, 
Latimer  and  Parker,  in  a  commission  for  punishing  the  anabap- 
tists. During  the  reign  of  ^lary,  he  was  compelled  again  to  retiie 
to  Germany,  where,  with  several  of  his  brethren,  among  whom 
Knox  was  included,  he  issued  the  Geneva  Bible,  with  marginal 
notes.  On  the  accession  of  Queen  Elizal^eth,  he  returned  home, 
refusing  to  be  reinducted  into  his  former  bishopric,  because  of  his 
objection  to  the  vestments,  and  assisted  at  the  consecration  of 
Archbishop  Parker,  dressed  in  a  j^lain  black  gown.  Grindal, 
Bishop  of  London,  gave  him  the  living  of  St.  Magnus ;  but  his 
obnoxious  principles  forced  him,  after  a  brief  ministry,  to  relinquish 
it  under  the  Act  of  Uniformity ;  and,  though  he  still  preached,  it 
was  in  secret  and  in  terror.  He  died  almost  broken-hearted,  and 
w^as  buried  in  St.  Bartholomew's  church ;  great  crowds,  to  show 
their  respect  for  his  useful  and  exemplary  life,  attending  at  his 
funeral.     This  was  in  the  year  1568. 

The  University  of  Cambridge  was  not  a  little  distinguished,  at 
this  period,  for  the  number  of  those  who,  educated  within  its  halls 
and  colleges,  had  imbibed  the  new  principles.  That  they  were 
exposed  to  considerable  privations  we  learn  from  a  sermon  preached 
before  Henry  VIII.,  by  Thomas  Lever,  B.  H.,  master  of  St.  John's, 
in  which  he  complains  that  ecclesiastics  and  courtiers  had  stripped 
the  university  of  its  aids  and  preferments.     "A  small  number 


WRITIIINGS    OF    THE    DOWN-TRODDEN.  65 

of  poore  godly  dylygent  students,  now  remaynynge  only  in  col- 
leges, be  not  able  to  tary,  and  contynue  their  studye  in  the  uni- 
versitye  for  lack  of  exhibition  and  helpe.  There  be  dyverse  ther 
which  ryse  dayly,  betwixt  foure  and  fyve  of  the  clocke  in  the 
mornynge,  and  from  fyve  till  syxe  of  the  clocke  use  common 
prayer,  wyth  an  exhortation  of  God's  worde  in  a  common  chap- 
pell  ;  and  from  sixe  unto  ten  of  the  clocke,  use  ever  either  private 
study  or  common  lectures.  At  tenne  of  the  clocke,  they  go  to  din- 
ner, where,  as  they  be  contente  wyth  a  penye  piece  of  biefe  among 
foure,  having  a  fewe  porage  made  of  the  broth  of  the  same  byefe, 
wythe  salte  and  otemel,  and  nothynge  els.  After  this  slender  din- 
ner, they  be  either  teachinge  or  learnynge  untyll  fyve  of  the  clocke 
in  the  evening,  whereas  they  have  a  supper  not  much  better  than 
theyr  diner.  Immedyatelye  after  the  wyche,  they  go  eyther  to 
reasonynge  in  problems,  or  unto  some  other  studye,  untyl  it  be 
nyne  or  tenne  of  the  clocke ;  and  there  beynge  wythout  fyre,  are 
f>..n  to  walke  or  runne  up  and  downe  halfe  an  houre,  to  gette  a 
heate  on  their  feete,  when  they  go  to  bed."=^  This  was,  truly, 
"  tlie  pursuit  of  knowledge  under  difficulties ; "  but  under  such 
hard  regimen  piety  flourished,  and  conscience  asserted  itself. 

Special  prominence  is,  however,  due  among  these  men  to 
Thomas  Cartwright,  fellow  of  John's  and  afterwards  of  Trinity 
College,  —  a  man  of  extraordinary  acquisition  and  piety,  said  by 
B(?za  to  be  the  most  learned  man  under  the  sun ;  and  the  opponent 
against  whom  Hooker  argued  in  his  "  Ecclesiastical  Polity."  So 
popular  was  he  as  a  preacher,  that  when  he  occupied  the  pulpit  at 
the  University  church,  it  was  necessary  to  remove  the  glass  from 
the  windows,  that  the  crowd  without  might  hear  his  voice.  When 
Queen  Elizabeth  visited  Cambridge,  Cartwright  was  selected  as  one 
of  the  public  disputants,  and  received  her  majesty's  high  encomium. 
He  was  appointed  Margaret  Professor  of  Divinity,  in  which  capac- 
ity he  lectured  on  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  asserted,  "  with 
all  possible  caution  and  modesty,"  that  the  Church  of  England  had 

♦Baber's  MSS.  Collection,  vol.  i.,  pp.  147,  148. 
6=^ 


66  "WRITHINGS   OF   THE    DOWN-TRODDEN. 

declined  from  its  primitive  model,  and  ought  to  be  purified.  He 
was,  moreover,  accused  of  objecting  to  the  names  of  archbishops 
and  archdeacons,  of  desiring  that  each  minister  should  be  capable 
of  preaching  and  be  chosen  hj  the  people,  of  opposing  the  observ- 
ance of  Lent  and  the  transaction  of  business  on  the  Lord's  day, 
and  of  objecting  to  the  phrase  "  Heceive  the  Holy  Ghost,"  in  the 
ordination  service.  Dire  offences,  especially  at  a  time  when  re- 
formation was  supposed  to  be  in  progress !  Yet,  for  these  crimes, 
he  was  expelled  the  University  by  Whitgift,  the  vice-chancellor, 
and  forbidden  to  preach  within  its  jurisdiction.  Whilst  thus 
deprived,  his  pei-secutor  accused  him  of  idleness,  and  of  living  at 
other  people's  expense ! !  After  spending  five  years  abroad,  he 
returned  to  England.  At  this  time  was  published  "  The  book  of 
Discipline,"  which  obtained  much  celebrity  as  an  exposition  of 
puritan  principles.  Its  authors  were  Field  and  Wilcox,  who 
underwent  a  long  imprisonment  because  of  its  publication.  Cart- 
wright  published  a  supplementary  volume,  which  was  replied  to 
by  Whitgift,  and  to  which  he  rejoined  with  great  moderation  ;  but 
he  was  a  mark  to  many  archers,  and,  after  much  hunting,  was 
compelled  to  withdraw  from  the  country  once  more.  lie  appeared 
again  in  England,  and  was  cast  into  prison  at  the  suit  of  Bishop 
Aylmer;  but  on  this  occasion  —  marvellous  to  relate!  — Whitgift 
interposed,  and  set  him  free.  At  this  junctui*e  he  was  patronized 
by  one  who,  though  from  motives  of  worldly  ambition  he  often 
advocated  the  puritan  cause,  was  destitute  of  a  single  virtue 
which  could  have  entitled  him  to  that  honor.  The  Earl  of  Lei- 
cester gave  him   the  mastership  of  his  hospital,  at  Warwick."^' 

*  This  hospital  was  originally  a  monastery,  which,  despoiled  at  the  Reforma- 
tion, was  conveyed,  either  by  descent  or  purchase,  to  "  Lord  Robert  Dudley, 
Earl  of  Leycester,"  who  obtained  its  constitution  as  a  collegiate  body.  It  is 
an  interesting  relio  of  the  times.  The  gate-posts  are  entwined  with  texts  from 
the  Bible.  Each  brother  occupies  separate  apartments,  with  the  use  of  a  com- 
mon kitchen,  and  is  allowed  eighty  pounds  per  annum.  The  brethren  wear  tbo 
cognizance  of  the  Earl  of  Leicester — a  silver  badge,  with  a  bear  and  a  ragged 
stafif — suspended  from  their  left  sleovo.  Cartwright  resided  in  the  master's 
lodge 


WRITHINGS   OF    THE    DOWN-TRODDEN. 


67 


Here,  accordingly,  Cartwright  resided;  and,  though  unable  to 
obtain  a  preaching  license,  was  sometimes  surreptitiously  listened 
to  in  the  neighboring  church  of  St.  Mary's. 


Leicester's  hospital,  Warwick. 

The  death  of  Leicester  immediately  afterwards  was  the  occasion 
for  a  new  attack  upon  Cartwright ;  and,  after  many  torturing 
cross-examinations  before  the  Court  of  Star  Chamber,  he,  together 
with  others,  was  committed  to  prison,  where,  notwithstanding  the 
interposition  of  James  \1.  of  Scotland,  Lord  Burleigh  and  others, 
they  remained  two  years.  Cartwright  never  recovered  the  shock 
which  damp  prisons  and  numerous  privations  inflicted  on  his  con- 
stitution. 

It  is  certain  that  Whitgift  entertained  no  small  regard  for  his 
former  adversary ;  but  the  queen  again  pursued  him,  and  drove 
him,  in  old  age,  from  his  native  land.  He  returned,  however,  to 
Warwick,  and  died  in  great  peace  and  religious  enjoyment,  the 
lustre  of  his  last  days  displaying  the  radiance  of  the  jewel  which 
intolerance  had  trampled  in  the  dust.  His  death  took  place  at 
the  time  when  the  writs  for  the  Hampton  Court  Conference  were 
issued,  and  he  was  interred  in  the  hospital  at  Warwick. 

Oxford  produced  at  this  time  some  men  not  less  memorable. 
For  a  period  after  Elizabeth's  accession,  only  three  preachers  were 
to  be  found  in  the  university,  —  Dr.  Humphrey,  Dr.  Sampson, 


68  WRITHINGS    OF    TflE    DOWN-TRODDEN. 

and  Mr.  KingSTnill.  In  an  address  presented  by  them,  explana- 
tory of  their  reasons  for  wearing  the  "  jjopish  habits,"  wc  find  the 
fbllov/ing  sentence :  "  Because  these  things  do  not  seem  so  to  you, 
you  are  nut  to  be  condemned  by  us ;  and  because  they  do  seem 
so  to  us,  we  ought  not  to  be  condenmed  by  you."  To  these  names 
may  be  added  that  of  Bernard  Gilpin,  the  apostle  of  the  north ;  of 
Walter  Travers,  who  was  member  of  the  first  Presbyterian  chui'ch 
established  at  Wandsworth,  part  of  whose  library  is  incorporated 
in  Zion's  College,  London ;  and  of  Henry  Jacob,  who  formed  the 
first  independent  church  in  England,  and  afterwards  emigrated  to 
Virginia.  We  have  not  hitherto  mentioned  John  Robinson,  justly 
regarded  as  the  founder  of  the  English  Independents.  He  had 
been  originally  settled  as  a  clergyman  near  Yarmouth,  in  the 
midst  of  a  knot  of  persecuted  puritans ;  but  after  citations  and 
legal  harassments,  till  he  and  his  friends  were  almost  ruined  by 
ecclesiasticid  proceedings,  he  had  taken  refuge  in  the  south  of 
Lincolnshire,  where  he  became  the  pastor  of  a  small  and  perse- 
cuted flock,  with  whom  he  migrated  to  Holland.  The  narrative 
of  the  difiiculties  encountered  by  this  little  band  is  extremely 
interesting,  and  is  related  in  the  first  number  of  the  *'  British 
Quarterly  Review."  Robinson  formed  in  Leyden  an  independent 
church,  and  there  he  died.  He  was  a  man  of  singular  wisdom, 
piety,  and  ability.  The  archives  of  St.  Peter's  church,  in  Ley- 
den, preserve  a  note  of  his  burial :  "  1626,  10  March.  —  Open 
and  hire  for  John  Robens,  English  preacher;  9  florins."* 

The  effect  of  the  vigorous  measures  taken  by  the  prelatical 
party,  immediately  after  the  Hampton  Court  Conference,  was  to 
scatter  the  puritans  in  every  direction.  Hundreds  of  them  fled  to 
Holland,  then  the  asylum  of  the  persecuted.  But  that  country 
was  in  many  respects  unsuitable  for  a  permanent  residence.  It 
was  at  best  but  a  lodging,  and  the  emigrants  longed  for  a  home. 
They  were,  moreover,  imperfect  in  the  language,  and  they  disliked 
the  low  and  humid  climate.     Bred  —  most  of  them  —  to  agricul- 

♦  Cheever's  Pilgrim  Fathers,  p.  157. 


WRITHINGS   OF   THE   UOWN-TRODDEN.  69 

ture,  they  pined  in  the  close  but  necessary  confinement  of  mechan- 
ical occupations.  With  the  natural  longings  of  the  human  heart, 
—  and  who  shall  censure  the  impulse  out  of  which  the  advance  of 
mankind  has  grown  ?  —  they  sighed  for  family  establishment,  for 
lineage,  for  a  government  adapted  to  their  wants,  and  for  a  posi- 
tion which  might  enable  them  to  become  free  members  of  society, 
and  important  workers  in  the  business  of  the  world.  The  ac- 
counts which  they  had  recently  received  respecting  the  territories 
of  the  western  continent  excited  and  allured  them,  superadding  to 
their  other  desires  a  noble  missionary  feeling,  —  an  impulse  to 
spread  the  gospel  in  the  regions  of  Virginia,  the  name  which  the 
queen  had  aifixed  to  the  greater  portion  of  these  transatlantic 
domains.  Long  and  anxious  were  their  debates  respecting  this 
project.  The  timid  shrunk  back ;  the  aged  recommended  cau- 
tion ;  the  ardent  overleaped  the  apparent  difficulties,  and  bounded 
with  hope.  After  much  prayer,  the  exiled  church  at  Leyden 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  tliey  would  bend  their  course  to  the 
Western  World.  They  began  negotiations  with  one  of  the  Vir- 
ginia companies,  —  at  that  time  there  were  two,  —  and  endeavored, 
though  fruitlessly,  to  gain  the  sanction  of  King  James.  They 
resolved  to  sail  for  New  England.  It  was  with  them  no  mercan- 
tile adventure;  it  was  strictly  an  ecclesiastical  movement,  in 
which  the  whole  church  under  Robinson's  pastoral  care,  now 
amounting  to  three  hundred  members,  were  interested.  It  had 
been  originally  designed  that  the  pastor  himself,  and  the  greater 
part  of  his  flock,  should  remove  to  Virginia,  and  set  up  a  new 
church  there ;  but  unexpected  difficulties  intervened,  and,  in  the 
issue,  Robinson,  with  the  majority  of  his  members,  was  reluctantly 
compelled  to  remain.  Yet  did  he  not  the  less  encourage  his  fol- 
lowers in  the  enterprise  which  he  might  not  join ;  whilst  his  holy 
character,  his  judicious  discrimination,  and  his  weighty  counsel, 
were  of  unspeakable  service  to  them  in  their  proceedings.  Two 
vessels  were  hired  to  convey  the  emigrants,  under  the  direction  of 
Brewster,  an  elder  of  the  church:    the  Speedwell  o^  sixty  and 

■"■"^^^^"^^ 

0?  TH«        ■^'^^ 


70  WlUTIllXGS    0¥    THE    UOWN-TR  ODDEN. 

the  Mayjlower  of  oue  hundred  and  eighty  tons.     Larger  means 
of  transport  they  could  not  obtain.    ^ 

And  now  the  Speedwell  is  anchored  in  Delft  Haven,  whilst  the 
Ilayfioiuer  waits  in  London  to  convey  the  greater  part  of  the  pas- 
sengers across  the  Atlantic.  It  is  a  time  of  activity  and  solicitude, 
but  yet  of  hope,  —  moistened  eyes  and  brightening  ones  alter- 
nate. In  preparation  for  their  voyage,  the  pastor  had  proclaimed 
a  fast,  and  called  a  solemn  assembly ;  had  set  before  them  noble 
motives,  and  warned  them  against  probable  dangers.  "  Brethren," 
said  the  holy  man  of  God,  "  we  are  now  quickly  to  part  from  one 
another,  and  whether  I  may  ever  live  to  see  your  face  on  earth 
any  more,  the  God  of  heaven  only  knows"  —  such,  at  this  moment, 
was,  however,  his  earnest  hope ;  —  "  but  whether  the  Lord  has 
appointed  that  or  no,  I  charge  you  before  God  and  the  blessed 
angels,  that  you  follow  me  no  further  than  you  have  seen  me  fol- 
low the  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  He  knew  their  unbounded  regard 
for  him,  and  feared  lest  truth  might  be  sacrificed  to  that  afiection. 
"  If  God  reveal  anything  to  you  by  any  other  instrument  of  his, 
be  as  ready  to  receive  it  as  ever  you  were  to  receive  any  truth  by 
my  ministry ;  for  I  am  verily  persuaded  the  Lord  has  more  truth 
yet  to  break  forth  out  of  his  holy  Word."^  The  times  of  prim- 
itive Christianity  were  almost  come  again,  when  these  emigi-ants, 
attended  by  the  mass  of  Robinson's  congregation,  by  hoary  men, 
tender  women  and  weeping  children,  were  accompanied  from  Ley- 
den  to  Delft  Haven,  seventy-four  miles.  All  were  strangers, 
tin  a  strange  land;  all  were  now  especially  dear  to  each  other, 
because  they  could  interpret  each  other's  beating  hearts  and  bleed- 
ing sympathies.  In  the  affecting  language  of  Bradford,  "  they 
knew  that  they  were  pilgrims,  and  lifted  up  their  eyes  to  heaven, 

*  Tlio  text  from  which  Robinson  preached  was  Ezra  8:  21.  And  it  is  evi- 
dent from  its  context  what  were  the  sentiments  then  present  to  his  mind  ; 
*'  For  I  was  ashamed  to  require  of  tlie  king  a  band  of  soldiers,  and  horsemen 
to  help  us  against  the  enemy  in  the  way  ;  because  we  had  spoken  unto  the 
king,  saying,  The  hand  of  our  God  is  upon  all  them  for  good  that  seek  him  j 
but  his  power,  his  wrath,  is  against  all  them  that  forsake  him." 


WRITHINGS   OF   THE   DOWN-TRODDEN.  71 

their  dearest  country,  and  quieted  their  spirits.  That  night  was 
spent  with  little  sleep  by  the  most."  The  next  day  they  went  on 
board.  The  parting  was  unspeakably  sad,  especially  for  those  who 
were  left  behind  ;  and  uncertainty  spread  its  impenetrable  shadow 
over  those  about  to  embark.  Who  could  tell  what  perils  they 
might  encounter  on  their  passage,  or  what  dangers  might  meet 
them  on  the  distant  strand  to  which  the  eye  of  their  hope  was 
looking?  But  faith  in  God,  for  which  they  had  sacrificed  so 
much,  imparted  a  solemn  gi-andeur  to  the  affecting  scene.  Tears, 
sobs  and  mutual  prayers,  impressive  even  to  the  Dutch  strangers, 
mark  their  final  leave-taking.  The  pastor  falls  on  his  knees,  his 
departing  children  all  around  him,  and,  with  "  watery  cheeks," 
commends  them,  in  a  last  most  fervent  supplication,  to  the  God  of 
the  winds  and  the  waves,  and  the  Lord  of  the  ends  of  the  earth. 
It  was  a  chapter  in  the  history  of  time !  They  are  gone,  and 
Robinson's  best  hopes  on  this  side  the  grave  are  gone  with  them. 
This  was  the  20th  of  July,  1620.    '       ^  =^  #  ^ 

It  was  the  middle  of  November  in  the  same  year,  the  commence- 
ment of  a  stern  sciison,  though  somewhat  less  inclement  than 
usual.  The  Mayflower^  with  its  passengers,  is  now  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Atlantic.  Perplexities  and  disasters  have  accompanied 
the  pilgrim  fathers  on  their  way,  and  they  are  now  a  diminished 
band.  Many  were  the  delays  before  they  could  set  sail  from  Eng- 
land. They  had  not  proceeded  far  before  the  Speedwell  was 
declared,  truly  or  falsely,  unfit  for  her  passage.  They  returned 
to  Dartmouth,  repaired  her,  and  again  set  sail.  A  hundred 
leagues  of  their  passage  were  traversed,  when  Reynolds,  master  of 
the  Speedwell,  declared  his  ship  in  imminent  danger  of  foundering. 
Again  they  returned,  depositing  "  the  feeble  and  faint-hearted " 
on  their  native  shores,  and  the  Mayflower  pursued  her  voyage 
alone.  For  a  time  the  winds  were  favorable;  then  a  succession  of 
storms  invaded  them.  Their  vessel  is  shattered,  cracked,  and  dur- 
ing many  days  incapable  of  bearing  a  sail.  Treachery,  too,  had 
brought  them  to  a  part  of  the  coast  very  different  from  the  banks 
of  the  Hudson,  v/hich  had  been  intended  for  their  future  home. 


72  WBITIIINGS   OF   THE   DOWN-TRODDEN. 

To  land  upon  the  shore  they  had  now  reached,  was  to  forfeit  the 
conditions  of  their  charter ;  yet,  worn  by  perils  and  exhausted  by 
privation,  they  regarded  any  land  as  welcome.  As  with  prayer 
they  had  left  the  Old  World,  so  with  devotion  and  thanksgiving 
they  planted  themselves  upon  the  New.  Providence  had  opened 
for  them  an  unexpected  home.  The  season  was  bitter  —  the  land 
unknown.  They  were  feeble  in  body,  sickly  in  health,  unhoused, 
unwelcoraed,  unblessed,  except  by  Him  whose  eye  was  upon  them 
for  good.  They  found  cleared  land,  springs  of  water,  and  a  good 
harbor.  They  formed  themselves  into  a  body  politic,  as  loyal  sub- 
jects of  King  James ;  chose  John  Carver  for  their  governor,  and 
began  to  take  measures  for  their  future  security.  They  had  left 
Europe  in  search  of  liberty,  and  they  found  it  in  a  desert.  On 
the  9th  of  December  they  kept  their  first  Sabbath  on  shore.  On 
the  10th  they  removed  their  goods  and  chattels  to  the  spot  now 
occupied  by  the  flourishing  wharves  and  mercantile  riches  of  the 
modern  town  of  Plymouth.  In  commemoration  of  this  event, 
sacred  services  still  mark  the  return  of  "  Forefathers'  Day,"  and 
the  rock  on  which  the  pilgrim  fathers  set  foot  is  enclosed  and 
enshrined  as  an  enduring  monument  of  the  ancestors  of  the  now 
great  North  American  community. 

Such  were  some  of  the  hardships  of  the  days  of  King  James, 
—  such  the  firmness  of  noble-minded  Christians,  and  such  the 
manner  in  which  Providence  transformed  many  of  their  evils  into 
blessings  !  Whilst  we  may  not  suppose  that  all,  or  even  many  of 
the  puritans,  held  clear  views  respecting  that  domination  of  the 
civil  power  in  religious  matters  from  which  their  sufferings  had 
sprung,  they  were  rapidly  advancing  towards  the  attainment  of 
more  correct  principles.  We  admire  their  fortitude,  and  love  their 
memory ;  we  must  estimate  their  opinions  by  a  clearer  light  than 
their  own. 


CHAPTER    III. 

CONTESTS    WITH    DESPOTISM. 

*•  I  know  how  to  add  Sovereign  to  the  King's  person,  but  not  to  his  power.  * 
—  Pym. 

Few  ancient  cities  have  undergone  such  changes  as  London. 
The  continental  traveller  delights  to  observe  how  quaint  and 
abnormal  structures  of  the  olden  times  solicit  the  e^e  at  every 
turn,  and  their  recurrence  gives  to  foreign  cities  no  inconsiderable 
amount  of  their  strangeness.  In  Rome,  in  Paris,  in  Brussels,  in 
Antwerp,  in  Cologne,  in  Mayence,  in  Frankfort,  he  who  penetrates 
into  the  crowded  mass  of  houses  which  usually  bears  the  name  of 
the  old  town  becomes  surrounded  by  the  vestiges  of  other  days, 
and  delights  to  hang  historical  associations  on  each  projecting 
frieze,  or  overhanging  balcony,  or  grotesque  ornament.  But  Lon- 
don is,  with  few  exceptions,  a  city  of  very  modern  growth.  Much 
of  this  is  doubtless  attributable  to  the  great  fire,  which  nearly 
destroyed  the  old  metropolis,  in  1666 ;  but  even  had  this  desola- 
tion never  occurred,  the  busy  enterprise,  the  increasing  commerce, 
the  readiness  to  adopt  recent  improvements,  the  love  of  cleanliness 
and  care  of  health,  which  distinguished  the  English  people,  would 
probably  have  led  to  nearly  tiie  same  results. 

How  few  of  the  countless  multitudes  who  daily  pre.ss  along  that 
crowded  thoroughfare,  the  Strand,  which  runs  between  Temple-bar 
and  Charing-cross,  think,  or  care  to  think,  of  the  successive  changes 
which  have  passed  over  the  spots  around  them  !  Yet'  there  was  a 
time  when  that  causeway  had  no  crowd  !  St.  Clement  Danes, 
Somerset  House,  and  their  environs,  were  not  always  what  they 
now  are.  Time  was  when  no  public  carriages  rattled  along  those 
7 


74  CONTESTS    WITH   DESPOTISM. 

streets ;  when  no  crowd  hastened  to  share  in  the  excitements  of 
Exeter  Hall;  when  no  Waterloo-bridge  invited  architectural  admir- 
ation, and  when  even  Charing-cross  presented  no  statue  of  Charles 
the  First !  In  Saxon  times,  Westminster  —  the  name  distin- 
guished it  from  the  East  Minster  of  St.  Paul's  —  was  little  better 
than  a  reclaimed  morass,  just  redeemed  from  insignificance  by  the 
erection  of  a  cathedral,  by  Edward  the  Confessor.  Yet  even  this 
was  not  the  first  church  which  stood  upon  the  spot.  An  earlier 
one  had  been  built  between  604  and  606 ;  and,  if  we  give  heed  to 
tradition,  St.  Peter  himself  had  set  up  an  oratory  upon  the  same 
site.  During  the  Saxon  monarchy,  and  under  the  reign  of  the 
Anglo-Normans,  Westminster  was  the  seat  of  royalty,  and  the 
place  of  the  inauguration  of  the  successive  monarchs.  Rufus  built 
the  hall  as  a  banquet-room.  It  was  afterwards  rebuilt  or  restored 
by  Richard  II.,  and  the  monastic  church,  as  it  now  exists,  was 
added  in  the  reign  of  Henry  III.  Hem*y  VII.  built  the  gorgeous 
edifice  which  bears  his  name,  in  the  place  of  the  "  Ladye-chapel," 
which  he  removed.  At  a  much  later  period,  the  western  towers 
were  erected,  after  the  designs  of  Sir  Christopher  Wren. 

In  early  days,  Westminster  was  a  suburban  village,  important 
from  its  cathedral  and  palace,  and  connected  with  London  by  a 
highway,  which  ran  along  the  side  of  the  river,  and  passed  through 
the  village  of  Charing.  Even  so  lately  as  the  reign  of  Elizabeth, 
the  Strand  was  mainly  occupied  by  the  houses  and  gardens  of  the 
nobility.  In  the  time  of  James  I.,  part  of  it  had  become  the 
favorite  resort  of  fishmongers.  These  traders  increased  so  much, 
that  they  at  length  became  a  nuisance,  and  were  in  the  year  1630 
dispossessed  of  the  positions  they  had  before  occupied  in  the  middle 
of  the  street.  It  may  be  not  uninteresting  to  ask  tlie  reader  to 
accompany  us  on  an  imaginary  journey  from  Temple-bar  to  West- 
minster, during  the  reign  of  Charles  I.,  a  period  which  gives  its 
date  to  the  "ensuing  chapter. 

Passing  from  the  clumsy  wooden  building  which  stretched  itself 
across  the  street,  where  now  the  insignificant  erection  of  Wren, 
called  Temple-bar,  stands  in  commencing  ruin,  we  notice,  on  the 


CONTESTS    WITH    DESPOTISM.  75 

left,  a  building  called,  successively,  Exeter  House,  as  being  the 
*•  inn  "  of  the  Bishops  of  Exeter ;  then  Paget  House,  because  occu- 
pied by  Lord  Paget;  afterwards  Leicester  House,  as  having  been 
enlarged,  and  in  part  rebuilt,  by  Dudley,  the  favorite  of  Elizabeth, 
and  at  this  time  Essex  House,  till  lately  the  residence  of  the  earl 
of  that  name,  for  whom  the  maiden  queen  entertained  so  strong 
an  affection.  The  son  of  that  great  man  was  now  residing  in  this 
building,  —  a  building  well  known  heretofore  to  Spenser,  —  nurs- 
ing the  sense  of  injured  justice  which  afterwards  made  him  an 
active,  though  not  fortunate  general,  in  the  parliamentary  cam- 
paigns. We  next  pass  Arundel,  afterwards  Norfolk  House,  in 
which  died  the  Countess  of  Nottingham,  who  withheld  Essex's 
ring  from  Elizabeth.  Afterwards  comes  within  view  Somerset 
House,  built  by  the  protector  of  that  name,  in  the  year  1549, 
successively  inhabited  by  Queen  Elizabeth  and  Aim  of  Denmark, 
the  wife  of  James  I.,  now  by  Henrietta  Maria,  —  whom  Charles, 
despising  the  omen,  resolutely  called  INlary,  —  a  palace  the 
intrigues  of  which  occupy  a  prominent  position  in  tlie  history  of 
the  times.  From  this  house  Charles  had  jast  sent  away  the 
French  household,  which  he  said  "have  so  dallied  with  my 
patience,  and  so  highly  affronted  me,  as  I  cannot  and  will  not 
longer  endure  it."  Within  this  building  the  queen  had  fitted  up 
a  splendid  catholic  chapel,  served  by  a  host  of  capuchins.  Here 
the  body  of  King  James  had  lain  in  state,  and  hereafter  it  fur- 
nished other  tt'die  beds  for  the  dead  body  of  the  Protector,  and 
subsequently  for  that  of  Monk.  We  next  pass  the  Savoy,  for- 
merly the  residence  of  John  of  Gaunt,  burned  by  the  populace 
during  the  insurrection  of  Wat  Tyler,  now  converted  into  a  hos- 
pital for  the  poor.  Beyond  this  is  Bedford  House,  built  by  Sir 
Robert  Cecil,  but  now  in  the  possession  of  the  family  of  Russell ; 
and  next  to  it,  on  the  other  side  of  the  spot  where  Ivy-bridge  once 
stood,  the  magnificent  palace  of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  now 
recently  erected,  of  which  the  fine  water-gate  by  Inigo  Jones  is  all 
which  is  destined  to  be  known  to  posterity.  Northumberland 
House,  occupying  the  site  of  the  hospital  of  St.  Mary,  —  dissolved 


76  CONTESTS    WITH    DESPOTISM. 

at  the  Reformation,  —  is  one  of  the  lordly  structures  of  the  hist 
reign  which  was  destined  hereafter  to  be  the  sole  survivor  of  a  line 
of  stately  residences. 

"VYe  have  now  arrived  at  Cliaring,  where  once  stood  a  cro?s 
erected  by  Edward  I.  in  memory  of  his  deceased  queen,  —  Ckcre 
Reyne, — but  now  a  place  for  the  pillory.  In  its  immediate 
vicinity  is  Whitehall,  which  we  must  pause  a  little  to  describe. 

A  mass  of  buildings,  courts  and  gardens,  extending  from  St. 
James'  Park  to  the  river,  in  breadth,  and  from  Scotland-yard, 
along  the  side  of  the  Thames,  nearly  to  Westminster-bridge,  in 
length,  formed  at  this  time  the  precincts  of  the  royal  palace. 
Here,  in  the  days  of  his  grandeur,  Wolsey  held  state,  and  dis>- 
played  the  profuse  magnificence  which  made  him  popular  with 
those  of  the  king's  subjects  who  fed  themselves  from  his  prodigali- 
ties ;  and  here,  it  is  conjectured,  he  built  the  palace  then  called 
York  Place,  but  subsequently  Whitehall,  from  the  whiteness  of 
its  stone  in  comparison  with  the  surrounding  buildings.  The 
former  name,  however,  ceased  at  the  period  when  the  possessions 
of  the  cardinal  passed  away  under  the  statute  of  prcBinunire. 


Sir,  you 


Must  no  more  call  it  York  Place  —  that  is  past ; 

For  since  the  cardinal  fell,  that  title  's  lost : 

'Tis  now  the  king's,  and  called  Whitehall." — Shakspeake. 

Here  Henry  married  Anne  Boleyn,  and  here  he'  died  of  "  an 
inveterate  ulcer  in  the  thigh,"  which,  says  Hollinshed,  "  added  to 
the  irascibility^  of  his  temper,"  an  addition  which  will  generally  bo 
admitted  to  have  been  quite  unnecessary. 

Passing  over  the  period  during  which  Edward  VI.  and  Mary 
held  court  here,  we  dwell  with  no  small  interest  upon  the  next 
mime,  alike  memorable  for  g<Jod  and  for  evil,  —  Elizabeth.  She 
hvld  her  court  alternately  at  Greenwich  and  at  Whitehall,  lles- 
olute  despotism  was  the  law  of  her  reign.  Whether  she  were  in 
any  great  degree  susceptible  of  the  softer  passions  may  be  doubted ; 
the  onlv  stronn  demonstration  of  such  a  weakness  —  the  case  of 


CONTESTS    WITH    DESPOTISM.  77 

Essex — is  of  somewhat  doubtful  authenticity,  and  is  besides  equiv- 
ocal in  its  amount  of  proof.  That  she  had  no  hesitation  in  over- 
stepping law,  when  it  suited  her  purpose,  is  evident  from  her  whole 
history,  and  from  nothing  more  than  from  the  manner  in  which 
she  acted  —  then  fortunately  —  during  the  terror  of  the  Spanish 
Armada.  If  religion  had  been  a  dogma  held  carelessly  and  doubt- 
ingly,  —  an  affair  of  interest  or  an  opinion  of  a  political  partj, — 
she  would  have  extinguished  its  light,  when  with  flashing  eye  she 
trampled  it  in  the  dust.  But,  as  an  eternal  verity,  it  was  beyond 
her  power.  She,  who  was  flattered  by  her  courtiers  for  personal 
charms  she  had  long  ceased  to  possess,  —  if,  indeed,  she  had  ever 
possessed  them  at  all,  —  till  she  believed  herself  a  Diana,  became, 
when  her  spiritual  supremacy  was  in  question,  so  instinct  with 
wrath  as  to  be  almost  a  demon. 

Rightly  to  understand  the  history  of  this  period,  let  us  take  the 
reader  a  little  further  into  the  liberties  of  the  ancient  city  of  West- 
minster. We  walk  under  the  gloomy  but  majestic  Gate-house, 
designed  by  Holbein,  —  in  a  style  not  altogether  unlike  the  front 
of  the  present  St.  James',  —  then  stretching  itself  across  the  road, 
and  forming  the  southern  precinct  of  the  palace  ;  and  passing  by 
the  side  of  Privy  Gardens,  then  really  the  private  gardens  which 
the  name  imported,  and  bestowing  a  thought  on  the  pulpit  erected 
there  by  Edward  VI.  for  Latimer,  we  pass  on  to  Old  Palace-yard, 
which  derived  its  name  from  having  been  an  adjunct  to  the  ancient 
residence  of  the  English  kings.  Two  remarkable  buildings  there 
meet  our  eye. 

The  first  of  them  is  the  Star  Chamber  Court. 

The  second  of  them  is  the  Gate-house. 

Stow,  who  published  his  "  Survay  of  London  "  in  the  year  1603, 
thus  describes  the  Star  Chamber,  which  during  his  day  existed  in 
all  its  dread  authority  : 

"  Then  there  is  also  the  Star  Chamber,  where  in  the  term-time 

every  week,  once  at  the  least,  which  is  commonly  on  Fridays  and 

Wednesdays,  and  on  the  next  day  after  the  term  endeth,  the  lord 

chancellor,  and  the  lords,  and  other  of  the  privy  council  and  the 

7# 


7S 


CONTESTS    WITH    DESPOTISM. 


chief  justices  of  England,  from  nine  of  the  clock  till  it  be  elev^cn, 
do  sit.      This  place  is  called  the  Star  Chamber,  because  the  roc»f 


;t  ^.iix■^..:.A. 


thereof  is  decked  with  the  likenesses  of  stars  gilt ;  there  bo  plaints 
heard  of  riots,  routs,  and  other  misdemeanors ;  which  if  they  be 
found  by  the  king's  council,  the  party  offender  shall  be  censured 
by  these  persons,  which  speak  one  after  the  other,  and  he  shall  be 
both  fined  and  commanded  to  prison." 

It  appears  tliat  so  early  as  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  this  court 
was  protested  against  by  the  commons,  as  interfering  with  the 
course  of  common  law.  Henry  VII.  revived  or  reconstituted  it, 
and  appointed  it  to  try,  infer  alia,  qasos  of  unlawful  assembling, 
together  with  all  kinls  of  irregularity  and  disorder,  not  coming 
under  the  cognizance  of  the  more  ordinary  courts.  That  it  had 
some  points  of  utility  may  be  inferred  from  Lord  Bacon's  approval 
of  its  constitution.  J>ut  when,  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  it  devel- 
oped its  full  powers,  it  became  a  tremendous  instrument  of  despo- 
tism. It  possessed  the  power  of  fining,  imprisoning,  banishing, 
mutilating,  inflicting  corporal  punishment ;  and  as  it  had  authority 


CONTESTS    WITH    DESPOTISM.         "  79 

to  proceed  on  confession,  every  kind  of  examination,  not  excepting 
that  by  torture,  was  within  the  range  of  its  jurisdiction.  It  was, 
moreover,  administered  by  judges  whose  appointment  and  removal 
were  entirely  within  the  power  of  the  crown,  Hume  says,  "  I 
question  whether  any  of  the  absolute  monarchies  of  Europe  contain 
at  present  so  illegal  and  despotic  a  tribunal." 

"  It  was  also  usual  for  the  judges  of  assize,  previously  to  their 
circuits,  to  repair  to  the  Star  Chamber,  and  there  to  receive  from 
the  court  directions  respecting  the  enforcement  or  restraint  of 
penal  statutes.  Numerous  instances  of  this  unwarrantable  inter- 
ference with  the  administration  of  the  criminal  law  occur,  with 
reference  to  the  statutes  against  recusants  in  the  reigns  of  Elizabeth 
and  James  I." 

Second  only  to  the  persecutions  of  Laud,  of  which  we  shall  here- 
after speak,  were  those  instigated  by  Archbishop  Whitgift,  under 
the  powers  of  this  court. 

Conjointly  with  the  Star  Chamber,  Elizabeth  established  another 
court,  termed  "the  Court  of  High  Commission,"  the  proceedings 
of  which,  being  often  not  very  clearly  distinguishable  from  that  of 
the  Star  Chamber,  may  without  injury  be  associated  with  it.  The 
authority  of  this  court  embraced  offences  against  the  canons,  and  it 
exercised  a  jurisdiction  greatly  resembling  that  of  the  inquisition 
in  other  countries.  The  rack,  torture  and  imprisonment,  were 
means  it  was  authorized  to  employ.  It  watched  over  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  oath  of  supremacy,  writing  or  preaching  against  v/hich 
was  punishable,  for  the  first  offence,  with  forfeiture  of  goods,  and 
a  year's  imprisonment ;  for  the  second,  with  the  pains  of  prcemU' 
nire  ;  and  for  the  third,  with  proceedings  as  against  high  treason. 
It  was  entitled  to  administer  the  oath  called  the  ex-officio  oath, 
which  demanded  that  the  prisoner  should  answer  all  questions  put 
to  him  ;  if  he  did,  he  was  convicted  on  his  own  confession,  and  if 
he  did  not,  he  was  imprisoned  for  contempt  of  court.  This  tribu- 
nal was  established  in  December,  1583,  at  the  special  instance  of 
Archbishop  Whitgift.  It  was  not  the  first  of  its  kind,  though  its 
powors  were  more  extensive  than  those  of  its  predecessors.     It 


80  CONTESTS    WITH    DESPOTISM. 

was  presided  over  by  forty-four  commissioners,  twelve  of  whom 
were  bishops. 

The  Gate-house,  of  which  mention  has  been  made,  is  thus 
described  by  Stow,  in  his  "  Survay  " : 

"  The  Gate-house  is  so  called  of  two  gates,  the  one  out  of  the 
college  court  towards  the  north,  on  the  east  side  whereof  was  the 
Bishop  of  London's  prison  for  clerks  convict ;  and  the  other  gate 
adjoining  to  the  first,  but  toward  the  west,  is  a  gaol  or  prison  for 
offenders  hither  committed.  Walter  Warfield,  cellarer  to  the 
monastery,  caused  both  these  gates,  with  the  appurtenances,  to  be 
built  in  the  reign  of  Edward  III." 

In  this  prison  was  confined  John  Udal,  accused  of  having  signed 
**  the  Book  of  Discipline,"  —  a  treatise  drawn  up  by  Travers,  and 
sanctioned  by  Cartwright,  explanatory  of  puritan  opinions.  Here 
he  was  kept  most  strictly,  being  denied  the  use  of  pen,  ink,  paper, 
books,  and  all  communication  with  his  friends.  With  fetters  on 
his  legs,  he  was  afterwards  tried  at  Croydon  on  written  depositions, 
without  being  allowed  to  confront  the  accusing  witnesses,  and  so  to 
cross-examine  them,  or  to  produce  any  evidence  in  his  own  exculpa- 
tion ;  he  was  denied  even  to  be  heard  by  counsel.  Though  no  legal 
evidence  proved  Udal  to  be  the  author  of  the  book,  he  was  con- 
demned as  a  felon.  When  he  heard  the  sentence  of  death  pro- 
nounced upon  him,  his  exclamation  was,  "  God's  will  be  done ! "  He 
died  in  the  Marshalsea  prison,  worn  out  and  broken-hearted.  It 
is  said  that  when  James  I.  came  to  England,  the  first  person  he 
inquired  after  was  Mr.  Udal ;  and  that,  when  informed  of  his  end, 
he  said,  "  By  my  soul,  then,  the  greatest  scholar  in  Europe  is 
dead !  " 

In  the  same  prison  was  confined  Robert  Jphnson,  domestic 
chaplain  to  lord  keeper  Bacon,  for  refusing  subscription,  baptizing 
without  the  cross,  and  marrying  without  the  ring.  From  this 
prison  he  wrote  to  the  bishop,  his  accuser :  "  If  to  imprison  and 
famish  men  be  the  proper  way  to  instruct  the  ignorant  and  reduce 
the  obstinate,  where  is  the  office  and  work  of  a  shepherd,  to  seek 
that  which  was  lost  and  bring  home  that  which  went  astray  1  ^  ^ 


CONTESTS    WITH    DESPOTISM.  81 

I  pray  you  let  us  feel  some  of  your  charitable  relief,  to  preserve  us 
from  death  under  this  hard  usage  ;  especially  as  you  have  been  the 
chief  cause  of  my  trouble,  I  desire  you  to  be  some  part  of  my 
comfort.  Let  pity  requite  spite,  and  mercy  recompense  malice." 
Another  petition  was  presented  on  his  behalf  to  Whitgiit,  inform- 
ing him  that  the  prisoner  "  was  sick  and  ready  to  die,  unless  he 
might  enjoy  more  air."  But  the  intercessions  were  vain, —  John- 
son died  a  prisoner  in  the  Gate-house. 

Here,  too,  was  confined  Giles  Wigginton,  vicar  of  Sedberg,  in 
Yorkshire,  where,  for  refusing  to  take  the  oath  to  furnish  evidence 
against  himself,  he  was  treated  with  the  utmost  barbarity,  being  so 
imperfectly  supplied  with  food,  and  so  heavily  loaded  with  irons,  as 
to  be  nearly  dead.  "  My  old  adversary,  the  archbishop,"  he  com- 
plained, "  hath  treated  me  more  like  a  Turk  or  a  dog  than  a  man, 
or  a  minister  of  Jesus  Christ."  This  suffering  divine  was  unjustly 
accused  of  treasonable  practices  against  the  goYernmeut  of  his 
day. 

The  heart  sickens  at  the  recital  of  atrocities  like  these.  One  or 
two  others  must,  however,  be  mentioned  as  having  occurred  within 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Star  Chamber,  or  its  blood-relation,  the 
High  Commission  Court : 

Francis  Johnson  had  embraced  the  principles  of  the  Brownists, 
and  whilst  assembled  with  a  congregation  in  Islington  was  appre- 
hended, with  fifty-five  others.  A  somewhat  similar  apprehension 
had  occurred  at  the  same  place  in  the  reign  of  Mary.  These  crimi- 
nals, as  they  were  called,  were  dispersed  among  the  various  prisons 
of  London.  A  petition  presented  by  them  to  the  privy  council 
sots  forth  the  hardships  which  ecclesiastical  ofFcndei-s  at  that  time 
endured.  Some,  they  said,  were  overladen  with  irons  ;  many,  and 
among  them  aged  women  and  young  maidens,  had  died ;  in  certain 
cases  prisoners  had  been  beaten  with  cudgels,  and  in  case  of  death 
under  such  treatment  no  inquest  was  held ;  while  the  houses  of 
those  suspected  of  puritanisni  were  liable  to  be  broken  into  and 
rifled  at  any  hour  of  the  uig'it.  Such  were  some  of  the  outrages 
against  which  they  petitioned.     Johnson,  when  examined,  though 


82  CONTESTS    WITH   DESPOTISM. 

he  refused  the  ex-officio  oath,  made  a  candid  statement  of  his 
principles  and  practices,  but  expressed  his  wonder  that  he  shouhi 
be  treated  in  a  manner  which  could  only  make  men  hypocrites. 
The  commissioner's  reply  is  thorough-going ;  and,  as  an  exponent 
of  the  whole  system  of  ecclesiastical  compulsion,  is  worthy  of  being 
commemorated, —  "  Come  to  the  church  and  obey  the  queerCs  laws  ; 
a?id  be  a  dissemble?',  be  a  hypocrite,  or  a  devil,  if  thou  wilt ! " 
Johnson  was  consigned  to  perpetual  banishment. 

What  nonconformist  is  not  familiar  with  the  names  of  John 
Greenwood,  co-minister  with  the  last  sufferer,  and  Henry  Barrow, 
a  lawyer  and  a  Brownist  ?  Accused  with  others  of  publishing 
seditious  writings,  these  men  were  separately  brought  to  trial. 
Greenwood  was  examined  at  great  length,  in  the  hope  that  he 
would  accuse  himself.  "  The  inquisitors  of  Rome,"  said  Lord 
Burleigh  of  similar  proceedings,  "  use  not  so  many  questions  to 
trap  their  prey.'.'     Among  other  points  was  the  following  : 

Whit  gift.  What  say  you  of  the  prince's  supremacy  ?  Is  her 
majesty  supreme  head  of  the  church,  in  all  causes,  as  well  ecclesias- 
tical as  civil  ? 

Greenwood.  She  is  supreme  magistrate  over  all  persons,  to 
punish  the  evil,  and  defend  the  good. 

W.  Is  she  over  all  causes  ? 

G.  No :  Christ  is  the  only  head  of  his  church,  and  his  laws 
may  no  man  alter. 

W.  What  say  you  of  the  oath  of  supremacy  ?  Do  you  approve 
of  it? 

G.  If  these  ecclesiastical  orders  mean  such  as  are  agreeable  to 
the  Scriptures,  I  do.     For  I  deny  all  foreign  power. 

W.  It  means  the  order  and  government,  with  all  the  laws  of 
the  church,  as  now  established. 

G.  Then  I  will  not  answer  to  approve  of  it. 

The  result  of  their  several  examinations  was,  that  these  men 
were  sentenced  to  die.  They  were  brought  to  the  gallows  to  try 
their  firmness,  and  afterwards  reprieved.  But,  at  length,  they 
were  carried  to  Tyburn  a  second  time,  and  there  executed ! 


CONTESTS    WITH   DESPOTISM.  83 

Nor  these  alone.  Penrj,  wliose  "Welsh  blood  rendered  him 
somewhat  vehement  against  ecclesiastical  abuses,  was  apprehended 
as  an  enemy  of  the  state,  arrested  and  condemned.  Whilst  lying 
under  sentence  of  death  he  addressed  a  most  affecting  letter  to  his 
fellow-Christians : 

"  I  humbly  beseech  you,  not  in  any  outward  regard,  as  I  shall 
answer  before  my  God,  that  you  would  take  my  poor  and  desolate 
widow,  and  my  mess  of  fatherless  and  friendless  orphans,"  —  he 
had  four,  the  eldest  only  four  years  old,  —  "  with  you  into  exile, 
whithersoever  you  go ;  and  you  shall  find,  I  doubt  not,  tluit  the 
blessed  promises  of  my  God,  made  to  me  and  mine,  will  accompany 
them." 

He  was  executed  in  an  unexpected  moment  to  himself,  and  in 
secret ! 

The  inveteracy  of  Whitgift  against  anabaptism  was  especially 
vehement.  "  Anabaptism,"  said  he,  "  which  usually  followeth  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel,  is  greatly  to  be  feared  in  the  Church  of 
England."  Multitudes  were,  therefore,  pei-secuted ;  two,  John 
Wielmaker  and  Hendrick  Terwood,  were  burned  at  Smithfield. 
The  latter  fact  is  memorable,  as  having  called  forth  a  remonstrance 
to  Queen  Elizabeth  from  John  Fox,  the  martyrologist. 

The  death  of  Elizabeth  —  had  remorse,  for  her  part  in  these 
barbarities,  any  share  in  embittering  her  last  hours  ?  —  abated  little 
of  the  severities  practised  in  these  terrible  courts.  James  I. 
received  and  transmitted  them  as  a  part  of  the  heirloom  of  the 
British  monarchy.  During  the  transactions  related  in  the  preced- 
ing chapter,  the  Star  Chamber  and  the  Gate-house,  as  well  as  the 
Clink,  Newgate,  the  Marshalsea,  overflowed  with  victims.  The 
king  was  intent  on  maintaining  his  own  saying  in  the  Basilicon 
Doron :  "  That  puritans  were  the  very  pest  of  the  church  and 
commonwealth ;  whom  no  deserts  can  oblige,  neither  oaths  nor 
promises  bind ;  breathing  nothing  but  seditions  and  calumnies ; 
aspiring  without  measure,  railing  without  reason,  and  making  their 
own  imaginations  the  square  of  their  consciences ; "  and  he  declared 
"  before  the  great  God  that  he  should  never  find  in  any  High- 


84  CONTESTS    WITH    DESPOTISM. 

lander  baser  thieves,  greater  ingratitude,  and  more  lies  and  vile 
perjuries,  than  among  those  fanatical  spirits  he  should  meet  withal." 
Such  is  the  testimony  which  Heylin,  the  vindicator  of  the  high 
church  party,  quotes  with  approbation.'^ 

Whilst  at  Westminster  we  cannot  forget  an  event  which  in  its  day 
shook  all  Europe,  and  went  deep  into  the  hearts  and  memories  of 
puritans,  —  the  gunpowder  plot.  Those  who  know  not  liow,  in  royal 
hunts,  game  is  planted  within  the  reach  of  royal  huntsmen,  that 
they  may  have  the  credit  of  superior  skill,  may  give  to  James,  and 
not  to  Cecil,  the  credit  of  really  discovering  the  bloody  conspiracy.! 
It  was  evident  that  the  plot  was  not  undertaken  from  any  deep 
dislike,  on  the  part  of  the  catholics  engaged  in  it,  of  James  himself. 
So  to  believe  would  be  too  great  a  compliment  to  the  monarch ; 
and  it  would  be  at  variance  with  his  repeated  declarations,  and 
with  his  conduct  in  the  matter  of  Spain  and  the  Palatinate,  to 
regard  him  as  bearing  any  decided  hostility  to  popery.  In  a 
curious  volume,  entitled  "  King  James,  his  Apopthegmes,  or  Table- 
talk  as  they  were  by  him  delivered  occasionally,  and  by  the  pub- 
lisher —  his  quondam  servant  —  carefully  received,  by  B.  A., 
Gent.,  Loudon,  1643,"  we  have  several  proofs  of  the  royal  senti- 
ments on  this  subject.  He  declares  that  he  himself  would  not 
condemn  anything  for  heresy  that  had  been  anciently  confirmed  by 
a  universiil  consent.  He  says,  moreover,  that  if  there  were  no 
quarrel  between  piipists  and  protestants  but  the  number  of  sacra- 
ments, he  would  himself  be  a  papist ;  and  then  tells  a  story  of  two 
persons,  a  papist  and  a  protestant,  who  fought  together  fatally  to 
them  both :  and  adds,  "  Before  I  would  have  lost  my  life  in  this 
quarrel,  I  would  have  divided  the  seven  into  three  and  a  half." 
But,  though  James  was  in  the  eyes  of  catholic  conspirators  scarcely 
regarded  as  an  enemy,  or  at  all  events  a  dangerous  one,  the  plot 
stood  out  portentously  before  thinking  religious  men  of  that  day, 
and  inexpressibly  deepened  their  detestation  of  and  their  panic  at 

*  lleyliu's  Acrius  Redivivus,  lib.  x. 

t  It  is  not  certain  if  it  belong  to  either.  A  passage  in  Lodge's  Portraits  may 
seem  to  destroy  the  claims  of  both.     See  Mackintosh's  England,  vol.  i  v.,  p.  187. 


CONTESTS    WITH    DESPOTISM.  86 

the  errors  of  popery.  They  saw  in  Romanism  a  system  of  huge 
ecolesiastical  domination,  which  claimed  the  homage  of  the  body, 
and  would  fain  extinguish  the  soul.  They  saw  that  in  proportion 
as  their  own  rulers  advanced  towards  it  they  became  insolent, 
imperious  and  persecuting,  and  they  suspected  that  all  this  arose, 
as  in  some  degree  it  did,  from  the  essential  nature  and  genius  of 
Catholicism  itself.  But  they  overlooked  the  fact  that  whenever 
any  system  of  religion  holds  the  civil  sword,  it  becomes  an  oppress- 
or, and  in  its  measure  a  tyrant.  Yet  the  crisis  was  certainly  a 
fearful  one,  and  puritans  might  well  fear  that  their  whole  reforma- 
tion was  at  stake. 

The  plot  might  have  read  men  a  higher  lesson.  It  might  have 
told  them  that  physical  force,  as  a  means  of  maintaining  religion, 
was  an  implement  which  could  be  wielded  by  enemies,  as  well  as  by 
friends.  But  men's  eyes  were  as  yet  only  half  open,  and  they 
derived  from  this  monstrous  combination  only  a  small  fraction  of 
the  lessons  it  really  conveyed.  When,  five  years  after,  Henry  IV. 
of  France  was  assassinated  in  the  streets  of  Paris  by  the  Jesuits, 
the  dire  result  led  to  a  sad  confirmation  to  the  worst  fears  of  good 
men ;  especially  when  James,  released  by  that  event  from  all 
protestant  leagues,  approximated  to  Romanism  as  closely  as  he 
could  without  actual  contact. 

In  the  mean  time,  but  less  vigorously  after  the  death  of  Ban- 
croft, the  severities  against  the  puritans  continued.  Heylin 
declares  that  if  James  had  done  his  duty  he  might  have  extirpated 
the  system  altogether :  a  thing  easier  to  speak  of  now  than  to 
execute  at  that  time.  Certainly,  Bancroft,  though  a  right  man 
for  that  purpose,  could  not  accomplish  this  villany ;  and  Abbot, 
his  semi-puritan  successor,  would  not.  Lacking  the  power  to 
exterminate,  which  alone  could  have  been  successful,  the  court 
took  to  tormenting,  to  which  it  was  more  competent ;  and  no 
inquisitor  showed  more  alacrity  for  the  task.  Touched  by  a  feel- 
ing of  sympathy  for  the  sufferings  of  the  puritans,  a  lady  of  piety 
had  bequeathed  five  thousand  pounds  to  be  distributed  among  the 
sufferers.     The  money  was  seized  and  distributed  among  conform- 


ob  CONTESTS   WITH   DESPOTISM. 

ists.  BartholomGW  Leggatt  was  cited  for  denying  the  divinity  of 
Christ.  The  king  held  a  conference  with  him  till  his  royal 
patience  was  exhausted.  Then,  rising  from  his  chair  and  dealing 
a  kick  to  the  heretic,  he  said,  "  Away,  base  fellow  !  it  shall  never 
be  said  that  one  stayeth  in  my  presence  that  hath  never  prayed  to 
our  Saviour  for  seven  years."  He  was  burnt  at  Smithfield. 
Another,  named  Whiteraan,  convicted  of  "  unheard-of  opinions," 
was  similarly  executed ;  and  a  third,  ordered  to  the  fire,  to  which 
he  was  not  brought,  because  of  the  sympathy  feared  from  the 
spectators,  died  miserably  in  Newgate. 

Before  we  leave  the  Star  Chamber  we  must  make  room  for  "  a 
sermon "  preached  by  James  in  that  court.  He  took  his  text 
from  Psalm  72  :  1,  —  "  Give  the  king  thy  judgments,  0  God." 
After  dividing  and  subdividing,  and  giving  the  literal  and  mystical 
sense  of  the  text,  he  applied  it  to  the  judges  and  courts  of  judica- 
ture, telling  them  "  that  the  king  sitting  in  the  throne  of  God,  all 
judgments  centre  in  him;  and  therefore,  for  inferior  courts  to 
determine  difficult  questions  without  consulting  him,  is  to  encroach 
upon  his  prerogative,  and  to  limit  his  power  ;  which  it  is  not  law- 
ful for  the  tongue  of  a.  lawyer  nor  any  subject  to  dispute.  As  it 
is  atheism  and  blasphemy  to  dispute  what  God  can  do,  so  it  ia 
presumption  and  liigh  contempt  to  dispute  what  kings  can  do  or 
say ;  it  is  to  take  away  that  mystical  reverence  that  belongs  to 
them  who  sit  in  the  throne  of  God.""^ 

Well  might  some  of  the  courtiers  speak  of  King  Elizabeth  and 
Queen  James ! 

But  there  were  materials  in  the  adjacency  of  the  king's  state 
which  were  festering  already  into  a  mortal  gangrene.  A  proof  of 
this  was  soon  afforded.  Roused  by  James'  supineness  in  defend- 
ing the  protestant  interests  of  his  son-in-law,  the  elector  palatine, 
and  also  by  his  desire  that  Prince  Charles  should  contract  a 
Spanish,  and,  therefore,  catholic  alliance,  the  commons  prepared  a 
remonstrance.  His  majesty  threatened ;  they  drew  up  another 
paper,  which  they  sent  to  the  king,  then  at  Newmarket,  by  a 

♦  Neal's  Puritans. 


CONTESTS    WITH    DESPOTISM.  87 

committee  of  twelve.  The  king  ordered  twelve  chairs  to  be  brought, 
"  for  there  were  so  many  kings  a  coming."  He  browbeat.  They 
resisted ;  and  passed  the  spirited  resolution,  "  that  the  liberties, 
franchises,  privileges,  and  jurisdictions  of  parliament,  are  the 
ancient  and  undoubted  birthright  and  inheritance  of  the  subjects 
of  England."  The  king  tore  the  protest  from  the  book,  dissolved 
the  houses,  and  committed  several  leading  members  of  the  com- 
mons to  prison.  Among  these  were  Sir  Edward  Coke,  Selden, 
and  Prynne.  Prince  Charles' learnt  from  his  father's  example, 
and  practised  the  trick  once  too  often  ! 

The  last  considerable  act  of  James'  reign  was  the  publication 
of  "  The  Book  of  Sports.".  The  purport  of  this  enactment  may  be 
learned  from  the  following  extract : 

"  That,  for  his  good  people's  recreation,  his  majesty's  pleasure 
was,  that  they  should  not  be  disturbed,  letted  or  discouraged, 
from  any  such  harmless  recreations  on  the  Lord's-day,  —  such  as 
dancing,  either  of  men  or  women,  archery  for  men,  leaping  or 
vaulting,  or  any  such  harmless  recreations ;  nor  having  of  May- 
poles, or  other  sports  therewith,  so  as  the  same  may  be  had  in  due 
and  convenient  time,  without  impediment  or  let  of  divine  service." 
^  ^  But  "  no  recusant  (papist)  was  to  have  the  benefit  of  this 
declaration  ;  nor  such  as  were  not  present  at  the  whole  divine 
service ;  nor  such  as  did  not  keep  their  own  parish  churches." 
This  was  designed  as  a  blow  for  the  puritans ;  but  its  effects 
reached  far  beyond  them,  and  prepared  the  way  in  no  inconsider- 
able degree  for  the  tumults  and  disasters  of  the  following  reign. 
"  The  Book  of  Sports "  was  ordered  to  be  read  in  churches,  and 
refusal  exposed  the  offender  to  all  the  penalties  of  the  high  com- 
mission. Yet,  said  the  king,  in  1620,  "  I  mean  not  to  compel  any 
man's  conscience  :  for  I  ever  protested  against  it."  Under  this 
enactment,  many  were  imprisoned,  or  ruined  by  heavy  costs. 
Fresh  gloom  and  terror  gathered  on  good  men's  minds.  But  the 
death  of  James  suspended  operations  for  a  moment,  though  only 
for  a  moment. 


88 


CONTESTS    WITH    DESPOTISM, 


Of  Whitehall,  as  it  appeared  a  century  ago,  and  much  nearer  to 
the  time  of  James,  the  following  engraving  is  a  representation  : 


WHITEHALL,   AS    IT    i:\ii,iED    IN    1746. 

Nothing  could  be  more  heterogeneous  and  confused  than  the 
mass  of  buildings  which,  under  the  general  name  of  Whitehall, 
met  the  eye  at  this  period.  They  were  all  in  great  ruin,  and 
extremely  ill-assorted.  The  only  nucleus  of  order  was  in  the 
banqueting-house,  designed  by  Inigo  Jones,  and  still  remaining,  as 
a  proof  of  the  graceful  conceptions  and  exquisite  taste  which  that 
great  architect  could  exhibit  in  erections  of  the  Grecian  order. 
The  palace  planned  by  him,  of  which  this  is  the  only  executed 
portion,  was  of  the  most  extensive  and  magnificent  description, 
intended  to  look  out  on  St.  James'  Park,  and  the  banqueting- 
house  was  meant  to  be  the  ornament  of  its  principal  court.  By 
the  side  of  this  great  design  most  modern  palaces  look  extremely 
contracted.  But  othe^  things,  in  addition  to  an  appropriate  design, 
are  requisite  for  the  construction  of  a  splendid  palace  ;  antl  it  so 
happened  that  in  these  oth^r  things  — in  cash,  for  instance  —  Juniea 


CONTESTS    WITH    DESPOTISM.  89 

and  his  successor  proved  dismally  deficient.  As  it  turned  out,  the 
father,  in  providing  for  that  building,  was  only  preparing  his  son's 
grave. 

We  have  now  to  imagine,  occupying  Whitehall,  the  staid,  sober, 
and  generally  decorous  court  of  Charles  I.  Not,  however,  that  we 
must  suppose  that  nothing  was  heard  or  seen  about  Charles  I. 
which  would  prove  incongruous  to  our  modern  sense  of  propriety  ; 
for  we  are  told  that  Charles  II.,  when  once  reproved  for  swearing, 
replied,  —  not  very  gracefully,  —  "  Oaths !  why,  your  martyr  was 
a  greater  swearer  than  I  am."  But  Charles  I.  was  haughty,  cere- 
monious and  unbending,  exhibiting  the  not  uncommon  paradox  of 
much  obstinacy  with  little  firmness,  a  scholar,  a  gentleman,  —  in 
its  popular  sense,  —  capable  of  warm  affections  and  distinguished 
by  fine  tastes,  but  uniting  with  these  an  ungracious  manner,  a 
preposterous  notion  of  the  royal  prerogative,  a  contempt  for  the 
people,  and  an  overweening  estimate  of  himself.  His  person  was 
imposing,  but  somewhat  crooked  in  the  lower  extremities ;  he 
stammered  in  his  talk ;  he  avowed  himself  no  orator,  but  declared 
to  his  second  parliament  that  he  desured  to  be  known  by  his  actions 
—  a  wish  which  has  certainly  been  amply  fulfilled.  Large  sums 
were,  in  the  commencement  of  his  reign,  expended  on  the  diver- 
sions of  the  court.  The  monarch  boasted  that  he  possessed  "  four- 
and-twenty  palaces,  all  of  them  elegantly  and  completely  fur- 
nished."    His  collection  of  pictures  was  unrivalled. 

The  features  of  Henrietta,  his  queen,  are  good-looking,  but 
shrewish ;  her  countenance,  distinguished  by  the  thin  curls  of  the 
period,  is  probably  known  to  every  reader.  She  was  a  haughty 
coquette,  full  of  vivacity  and  fond  of  intrigue,  proud  of  being  the 
daughter  of  Henri  Quatre,  and  capable  of  an  activity  to  which  her 
intellect  bore  no  proportion. 

Some  of  the  earlier  portions  of  this  reign  exhibit  no  little  irrita- 
tion of  feeling  between  the  king  and  his  spouse. 

''The  king  and  queen,  dining  together  in  the  presence,  Mr. 
Hacket,  being  then  to  say  grace,  the  confessor  would  have  pre- 
vented him,  but  that  Hacket  shoved  him  away ;  whereupon  the 
8^ 


90  CONTESTS    WITH    DESPOTISM. 

confessor  went  to  tlie  queen's  side,  and  was  about  to  say  grace 
again,  but  that  the  king,  pulling  the  dishes  unto  him,  and  the 
carvers  falling  to  their  business,  hindered.  When  dinner  was 
done,  the  confessor  thought,  standing  by  the  queen,  to  have  been 
before  Mr.  Hacket,  but  Mr.  Hacket  again  got  the  start.  The 
confessor,  nevertheless,  begins  his  grace  as  loud  as  Mr.  Hacket, 
with  such  a  confusion,  that  the  king  in  great  passion  instantly  ix)se 
from  the  table,  and  taking  the  queen  by  the  hand,  retired  into  the 
bed-chamber."  =^ 

Amidst  the  elements  of  Charles'  reign  there  was  one  hostile 
force,  however,  on  which  the  king  had  little  calculated,  and  which 
he  was  little  prepared  to  meet ;  which  had  acquired  prodigious 
strength  during  the  folly  and  imbecility  of  the  last  reign,  and 
which,  when  tortured  into  madness  by  Charles  himself,  proved  a 
Hercules  by  whose  strength  the  monarchy  was  strangled.     It  was* 

rUBLTC  OPINION. 

What  scenes  —  scenes  now  faded  from  men's  eyes  into  the 
obscurity  of  oblivion  —  did  Whitehall  witness  in  those  days ! 
There  might  be  seen,  immediately  after  Charles'  accession,  the 
new  court  going  forth  from  the  palace  with  its  huge  array  of 
attendants  and  purveyance,  to  seek  a  refuge  in  the  country, 
because  the  knell  of  the  plague-bell  was  sounding  in  its  ears ! 
There,  in  the  next  year,  the  plague  being  now  abated,  might  be 
witnessed  the  great  ceremonial  attending  the  coronation,  in  which 
the  queen,  from  catholic  scruples,  refused  to  bear  a  part,  —  which 
gave  rise  to  the  prejudice  that  she  was  no  queen  at  all,  —  the  king, 
clothed  in  white,  going  by  water  from  Whitehall,  whilst  Bucking- 
ham, though  nominally  the  dependent,  took  the  right  hand  of  the 
king,  and,  by  advice  of  Laud,  a  ceremonial  was  administered  in 
which  occurred  some  singular  interpolations  assertive  of  ecclesias- 
tical power ;  whilst  men  might  note  with  what  singular  coldness 
and  silence  the  new  monarch  was  received  by  his  already  suspicious 
people.  There  might  be  heard  the  whispers  of  the  day  respecting 
the  feud  now  commencing  between  Charles  and  his  parliament,  — 
•  D'lsrfteli'a  Curiosities  of  Literature. 


CONTESTS   WITH    DESPOTISM.  91 

the  criminations  heaped  on  the  head  of  Buckingham  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  spirited  defence  made  by  the  king  on  the  other. 
There  was  witnessed  the  crowd  of  the  commons,  as,  in  obedience 
to  the  monarch's  summons,  they  thronged  to  meet  him  at  his  pal- 
ace, and  as  they  received  the  following  dictum  at  their  dismissal  : 
*'  Remember  that  parliaments  are  altogether  in  my  power  for  their 
calling,  sitting,  or  dissolution  ;  therefore,  as  I  find  the  fruits  of 
them  good  or  evil,  they  are  to  continue  or  not  to  be."  Courtiers 
burn  with  Indignation  as  they  learn  that,  nothing  daunted  by  such 
reprehensions,  the  commons  complain  of  grievances,  and  in  the 
end  proceed  to  the  impeachment  of  the  great  duke  himself;  and 
the  names  of  Digges,  Selden,  Whitelock,  Pym  and  Elliott,  are 
handed  about,  in  detestation  or  in  scorn.  Of  these  courtiers,  how 
many  afterwards  moistened  the  earth  with  their  blood  in  the  king's 
cause  !  There,  tco,  might  be  seen,  on  the  day  after  the  imprison- 
menti  of  Digges  and  Elliott  in  the  Tower,  the  king  in  earnest  con- 
versation with  the  duke  in  the  royal  bed-chamber,  whilst  Charles 
was  overheard  to  pronounce  the  words  :  "  What  can  I  do  more  ? 
I  have  engaged  mine  honor  to  mine  uncle  of  Denmark,  and  other 
princes.  I  have  In  a  manner  lost  the  love  of  my  subjects.  What 
wouldst  thou  have  me  to  do  ? "  Was  the  duke  urging  the  king  to 
a  dissolution,  and  was  Charles'  firmness  beginning  to  give  way 
already  ?  At  length  the  king  rescued  his  favorite  by  dissolving 
the  parliament. 

How  the  king  after  this  dissolution  embarked  upon  his  new 
career  of  forced  loans  ;  how  the  Gate-house  and  other  prisons  were 
crowded  with  the  victims  of  his  oppression ;  how  the  orthodox 
clergy  sanctioned  his  proceedings  and  preached  up  the  doctrine  of 
divine  right;  how,  whenever  his  majesty  appeared  in  public, 
whether  at  Whitehall  or  in  Westminster,  he  was  greeted  by  the 
cries  of  "a  parliament!"  how,  after  much  hesitation,  Charles 
was  compelled  at  length,  by  the  strong  pressure  of  his  own  neces- 
sities, to  give  Avay  ;  how  the  commons,  thus  brought  together, 
framed  with  much  stormy  debate  the  celebrated  petition  of  right ; 
how  the  king  gave  his  assent  to  it ;  how,  after  parliament  had  been 


92  CONTESTS    WITH    DE3L>0TIg.M. 

prorogued,  this  petition  of  right,  though  purchased  with  the  people's 
subsidies,  was  faithlessly  and  shamelessly  broken,  and  even  the  copy 
of  it  ordered  to  be  printed  garbled  or  suppressed ;  how  Wentworth 
deserted  to  the  court ;  how  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  was  suddenly 
and  cruelly  assassinated ;  how  his  murderer  was  executed  at  Ty- 
burn, and  afterwards  hung  in  chains  at  Portsmouth ;  —  such  are 
the  matters  now  notorious  to  the  world,  but  then  matters  of  sur- 
mise, or  whisper,  or  doubt,  of  conversation,  concern  or  horror,  to 
the  circle  about  Whitehall.  The  contest  between  the  king  and  his 
people  had  begun  !  ' 

Charles'  p/ime  favorite  at  this  time  was  one  whose  name  is 
bound  up  with  the  tragical  history  of  his  times,  William  Laud. 
He  was  the  son  of  a  clothier  in  Reading.  His  education  was 
gained  at  Oxford,  where,  in  some  of  his  chapel-exercises,  he 
had  defended  the  side  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  In  taking  his 
degree  of  R.  D.,  he  maintained  two  points,  —  the  necessity  of  bap- 
tism to  salvation,  and  that  there  could  be  no  true  church  without 
diocesan  bishops.  Such  principles  smoothed  his  way  to  the  court, 
though  Abbott,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  threw  constant  obsta- 
cles in  his  path.  He  became  successively  Prebendary  of  Lincoln 
and  Archdeacon  of  Huntingdon.  He  accompanied  King  James  in 
his  visit  to  Scotland  in  1617,  and  on  his  return  became  Prebendary 
of  Westminster.  He  next  became  Bishop  of  St.  David's.  Laud 
took  a  large  share  in  the  correspondence  relative  to  the  marriage 
of  Charles  I.  with  Henrietta  Maria,  and,  soon  after  the  new  reign 
had  begun,  delivered  to  the  king,  by  royal  command,  a  list  of  the 
clergy  in  the  kingdom,  or  at  least  of  the  principal  of  them,  distin- 
guishing them  by  0.  for  Orthodox,  and  P.  for  Puritan,  as  the  case 
might  be.  After  holding  for  a  short  time  the  bishopric  of  Bath 
and  Wells,  he  was  translated  to  that  of  London.  It  is  at  this 
period  we  find  him  at  court ;  in  person  a  short,  ruddy,  self-satisfied- 
looking  man ;  in  disposition  active,  bustling,  but  not  a  little  chol- 
eric withal ;  a  conscientious  persecutor,  who  transacts  his  greatest 
barbarities  upon  his  knees ;  a  meddling,  officious  person,  as  obsti- 
nate aa  rash ;  in  short,  one  of  that  tribe  apparently  born  to  do 


CONTESTS    WITH    DESPOTISM.  93 

mischief,  and  to  take  credit  in  doing  it.  This  man,  the  right  hand 
of  Buckingham  whilst  that  duke  was  living,  is  now  highest  in  the 
king's  confidence ;  suspected  already  of  being  the  author  of  those 
speeches  of  Charles  in  which  he  abuses  members  of  the  commons ; 
asserts  that  he  does  not  deign  to  threaten  them  because  they  are  not 
his  equals  ;  and  declares  his  own  prerogative  in  almost  every  sen- 
tence. In  addition  to  these  reasons  of  dislike,  Laud  is  known  to 
be  an  Arminian,  and  suspected  of  being  a  Romanist  in  disguise. 

Nor  were  similar  apprehensions  frivolous.  Under  Henry  VIII. 
the  crown  had  been  the  dominant  influence,  and  the  church  had 
taken  life  from  it.  But  now  the  bishops  began  to  declare  that 
they  did  not  hold  the  jurisdiction  of  their  spiritual  courts  from  the 
king.  Religion,  armed  with  civil  power,  was  aiming  at  the  pre- 
eminence, as  in  the  worst  days  of  Romish  despotism.  The  affairs 
of  chancery  were  very  extensively  conducted  by  arbitrary  courts, 
altogether  beyond  the  reach  of  law.  It  behoved  men  to  be  awake 
and  in  earnest.  Had  they  not  been  so,  all  that  Britons  most  prize 
would  have  been  speedily  and  irretrievably  lost. 

Charles'  third  parliament  was  full  of  action.  It  was  not  noisy, 
but  it  was  resolute.  There  was  a  general  understanding  that  Laud 
suggested  the  moves  which  the  king  was  making.  In  the  midst 
of  encounters,  therefore,  respecting  "  tonnage  and  poundage,"  the 
commons  take  up  religion.  The  subject  was  promising,  it  was  very 
sincerely  entered  upon  ;  but  it  proved  the  fly  in  the  pot  of  oint- 
ment. The  course  taken  undid  Laud,  which  was  one  object ;  but 
it  also  undid  in  the  issue  religion  itself,  which  was  grievous  to  all 
concerned.  If  parliament,  according  to  Pym's  doctrine,  must  set- 
tle religion,  it  must  needs  establish,  at  that  time,  presbyterian  wor- 
s^.iip.  Pym  might  not  object  to  the  conclusion,  but  it  was  Pym's 
boast  that  they  were  legislating  for  posterity ;  and  there  were 
those  who,  both  now  and  hereafter,  would  dispute  the  legislative 
right.  How  little  advance  had  been  made  in  the  understanding 
of  true  religious  liberty  by  this  parliament,  may  be  learned  from 
one  of  the  protests  voted  by  the  commons  at  the  time  when  the 
king  attempted  violently  to  stop  their  proceedings  :  —  "  Whoever 


94  CONTESTS    WITH    DESPOTISM. 

shall  bring  in  innovation  in  religion,  or  by  favor  seek  to  extend  or 
introduce  popery  or  Arminianism,  or  other  opinions  disagreeing 
from  a  true  and  orthodox  church,  shall  be  reputed  a  capital  enemy 
to  this  kingdom  and  commonwealth."  On  the  same  day,  the 
.king,  without  summoning  the  commons,  dissolved  the  parliament 
—  1629. 

Charles  seemed  now  to  have  nailed  his  colors  to  the  mast.  He 
resolved  to  rely  no  more  on  parliaments,  but  to  govern  by  his  own 
sole  authority,  and  believed  that  in  this  effort  at  despotism  he  would 
be  successful.  Canute  might  as  well  command  the  roaring  waves 
to  retire.  In  this  expedition  the  king  was  sustained  by  two  advisers, 
Strafford  and  Laud. 

The  Star  Chamber  and  High  Commission  Court  now  asserted 
all  their  terrors.  Laud  republished  "  The  Book  of  Sports,"  and 
suspended,  deprived,  expelled,  without  justice  or  mercy,  those  who 
opposed  its  introduction,  or  who  resisted,  or  were  even  suspected 
of  resisting,  the  royal  prerogative.  Let  one  or  two  scenes  exhibit 
to  the  reader  the  tender  mercies  of  these  tribunals ! 

It  is  the  26th  of  November,  —  cold  and  piercing  weather.  A 
multitude  is  assembled  at  Westminster,  to  witness  the  punishment 
of  one  of  Laud's  victims.  Surrounded  by  a  host  of  constables  and 
truculent  attendants,  is  seen  a  man  of  fair  complexion  and  low 
stature,  with  light  hair  and  high  forehead,  between  forty  and  fifty 
years  of  age ;  evidently  a  man  of  thought  and  mental  vigor.  He 
is  mounted  on  a  stage,  probably  in  Palace-yard.  First,  with  a 
sharp  knife,  ©ne  of  his  ears  is  sliced  off;  then,  with  the  same  instru- 
ment, one  side  of  his  nose  is  cut  open  ;  the  attendants  then  bring 
a  red-hot  iron,  which  with  hissing  sound  imprints  on  one  of  his 
cheeks  the  letters  S.  S.  (sower  of  sedition),  amidst  the  prisoner's 
yell  of  agony.  Then,  maimed,  bleeding,  frantic  with  pain,  he  is  left 
amidst  the  murmurs  and  execrations  of  the  mob,  —  not  on  him,  but 
on  his  persecutors,  —  to  stand  for  two  hours  in  the  severity  of  the 
weather.  This  done,  the  poor  victim  is  tied  to  a  post ;  whipped 
with  a  triple  cord,  whilst  each  stripe  tears  away  the  flesh  from 
his  lacerated  back ;  he  is  denied  to  be  carried  back  to  his  prison 


CONTESTS    WITH   DESPOTISM.  95 

in  a  coach  which  had  been  provided  for  him,  but  instead  of  this  is 
compelled,  with  those  bleeding  wounds,  to  go  by  water  in  an  open 
boat !  And  this  is  only  the  half  of  his  sentence.  For,  seven 
days  after,  he  undergoes  in  Cheapside  the  cutting  off  of  another 
ear,  the  branding  with  a  red-hot  iron  of  another  cheek ;  a  similar 
whipping;  after  which,  he  is  kept  in  the  Fleet  prison  for  a  fort- 
night, in  an  apartment  exposed  to  the  snow  and  cold.  Such  is  the 
treatment  of  a  scholar  and  a  divine  —  of  the  father  of  the  future 
Archbishop  of  Dumblane  !  His  crime  was,  that,  maddened  by 
oppression  and  outrage,  he  had  been  guilty  of  denouncing  his  per- 
secutors. And  when  this  terrible  sentence  was  pronounced  upon 
him.  Laud  had  taken  off  his  hat  and  given  God  thanks !  And 
this  by  way  of  promoting  —  according  to  Laud's  views  —  true 
religion !  Was  it  wonderful  that  when  the  petition  of  this  suf- 
ferer, Dr.  Leighton,  was  read  to  the  Long  Parliament,  the  House 
interrupted  the  reading  of  it  with  floods  of  tears  ?  Or  that,  when 
by  the  interposition  of  that  parliament  he  was  set  free,  being  then 
scarcely  able  to  v/alk,  or  see,  or  hear,  men  should  have  execrated 
the  author  of  such  barbarities  ? 

Not  less  memorable  were  the  sentences  passed  upon  Burton, 
Bastwick  and  Prynne. 

The  first  of  these  men  was  minister  of  Friday-street,  London. 
He  had  been  clerk  of  the  closet  to  Prince  Henry,  and  after  his 
death  to  Prince  Charles,  —  with  whom,  after  the  latter  came  to 
the  throne,  he  had  remonstrated  on  the  popery  of  some  of  its 
favorites,  especially  of  Laud,  whose  very  religion  is  intolerance. 
He  had  been  cited,  tormented,  imprisoned ;  but  all  efforts  had 
failed  to  subdue  the  spirit  with  which  he  inveighed  against  pa- 
pistry. He  had  still  complained,  to  Laud's  great  annoyance,  of 
tables  turned  into  altars,  the  worship  of  the  crucifix,  and  the  sup- 
pression of  Sunday-afternoon  services.  He  had  refused  to  con- 
demn himself  on  the  ex-officio  oath,  and  did  not  appear  when  cited 
before  the  High  Conmiissicn  Court.  For  these  offences  he  had 
been  apprehended. 


96  '^  CONTi:«'S   WITU   dispottsm. 

The  second  of  these  victims  had  published  reflections  on  the 
proceedings  of  the  bishops. 

The  third  had  written  against  plays  and  players,  as  tending  to 
the  corruption  of  public  morality ;  and  because  the  queen,  some 
six  weeks  after  its  publication,  had  performed  a  part  in  a  pastorale 
at  Somerset-house,  he  had  been  represented  by  Laud  as  directing 
his  attacks  against  her ;  and  in  consequence  he  had  been  brought 
into  the  Star  Chamber.^  These  three  were  sentenced  by  this 
court  to  be  fined  five  thousand  pounds  each,  and  to  have  their 
ears  cut  off;  and,  as  Prynne  had  already  lost  his  ears  by  a  sen- 
tence of  the  court  in  1633  (his  wife  had  them  caught  in  her  lap, 
and  had  sewn  them  on  again),  the  remainder  of  the  stumps  were 
ordered  to  be  cut  off,  and  the  letters  S.  L.  (seditious  libeller) 
branded  on  both  cheeks.  They  were  condemned,  moreover,  to 
suffer  separate  imprisonment  in  three  of  the  most  distant  prisons ; 
namely,  Burton  in  Lancaster  Castle,  Prynne  in  Carnarvon,  and 
Bastwick  in  Launceston.  In  vain  did  Burton's  parishioners 
numerously  petition  on  his  behalf.  The  two  individuals  who  pre- 
sented the  memorial  were  themselves  imprisoned,  and  the  sentence 
was  executed ! 

When  it  was  passed,  Laud,  after  a  speech  to  the  judges,  declara- 
tory of  the  rectitude  of  his  intentions,  and  the  singleness  of  his 
heart,  said,  "  I  humbly  give  you  all  hearty  thanks  for  your  just 
and  honorable  censure  upon  these  men,  and  your  unanimous  dislike 
of  them !  " 

Burton  came  to  the  scaffold  in  the  spirit  of  a  martyr.  "  Shall 
I  be  ashamed,"  said  he,  "  of  a  pillory  for  Christ,  who  was  not 
ashamed  of  a  cross  for  me  ?  "  "I  never  was  in  such  a  pulpit 
before."     "  The  truth  which  I  have  preached  I  am  ready  to  sea) 

*  "  On  the  restoration  of  Charles  11.,  some  one  asked  the  king  what  must  bo 
done  with  Prynne  to  make  him  quiet.  *  Why,'  said  his  majesty,  '  let  him 
amuse  himself  with  writing  against  the  catholics,  and  in  poring  over  the 
records  of  the  Tower.'  To  enable  him  to  do  the  latter,  Charles  made  him 
keeper  of  the  records  of  the  Tower,  with  a  salary  of  five  hundred  pounds  per 
annum."  —  Wood's  Athen.  Oxon,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  311 — 317. 


CONTESTS    WITH    DESPOTISM.  97 

with  my  own  blood,  and  this  is  my  crown  both  here  and  hereaf- 
ter." So  mercilessly  was  the  sentence  executed,  that  the  temporal 
artery  was  cut,  and  the  blood  streamed  in  torrents,  amidst  the 
cries  of  an  excited  multitude,  who  treasured  up  the  bloody  rags 
as  relics. 

Prynne's  ears  were  almost  sawn  off.  "  Cut  me,  tear  me,"  said 
the  fiery  and  intrepid  man.  . "  I  fear  thee  not.  I  fear  the  fire  of 
liell,  not  thee !  " 

When  these  men  were  taken  out  of  the  city  to  be  forwarded  to 
their  respective  places  of  confinement,  the  concourse  of  spectators 
was  very  great.  Burton's  wife  had  large  sums  of  money  thrown 
into  her  coach,  and  Prynne,  on  his  way  to  Carnarvon,  stopped  at 
Coventry,  where  many  persons  visited  him,  and  contributed 
towards  the  furniture  of  his  prison.  At  this  sympathy  Laud 
was  furious.  In  a  letter  to  the  Earl  of  Strafford,  he  expresses  the 
most  lively  indignation.  Those  who  had  aided  Prynne  were 
apprehended,  fined,  and  compelled  to  make  a  public  acknowledg- 
ment of  their  guilt.  Prynne's  portrait  had  been  taken  and  cop- 
ied. The  painter  was  prosecuted,  the  pictures  destroyed  and  pub- 
licly burnt.  Prynne's  servant  was  proceeded  against  because  he 
had  refused  to  give  evidence  against  his  master.  Not  content 
with  this,  the  archbishop  procured  an  order  to  be  sent  after  the 
prisoners,  increasing  the  severity  of  their  imprisonment.  No  let- 
ters were  allowed  ;  not  even  the  wives  of  the  two  who  were  mar- 
ried were  permitted  to  see  their  husbands,  and  they  were  com- 
manded to  be  separated  from  all  intercourse,  except  with  their 
jailors.  Burton  was  afterwards  removed  from  Lancaster,  contrary 
to  liis  sentence,  to  Guernsey,  where  he  was  confined  in  a  dungeon 
of  the  most  narrow  dimensions ;  Bastwick  was  transported  to  the 
Scilly  Islands,  and  Prynne  to  the  Isle  of  Jersey.  There  these 
afilicted  men  remained  till  1640.  Charles  I.  somewhat  mitigated 
Prynne's  sentence.  But  Laud,  enraged,  sent  for  Hungerford,  who 
had  obtained  the  relaxation,  and  afterwards  summoned  him  before 
the  council. 

At  the  same  time,  a  Mr.  Hayden,  for  "  venturing  to  preach 
9 


98  CONTESTS   WITH   DESPOTISM. 

occasionally  without  being  restored,  was  apprehended  again,  and 
sent  to  the  Gate-house  by  Archbishop  Laud,  and  from  thence  to 
Bridewell,  where  he  was  whipt,  and  kept  to  hard  labor.  Here  he 
was  confined  in  a  cold,  dark  dungeon,  during  a  whole  winter,  being 
chained  to  a  post  in  the  middle  of  a  room,  with  irons  on  his  hands 
and  feet,  having  no  other  food  but  bread  and  water,  and  a  pad  of 
straw  to  lie  upon."  ^ 

G  reat  numbers  of  persons  were  expatriated  to  Holland  and  New 
England,  from  fear  of  the  consequences  to  which  their  noncon- 
formity would  expose  them.  One  of  these  persons  —  Mr.  Cotton 
—  applied  to  the  Earl  of  Dorset  to  shield  him  from  the  anger  of 
the  archbishop,  and  received  for  reply :  "If  you  had  been  guilty 
of  drunkenness,  uncleanness,  or  any  such  fault,  I  could  have  got 
your  pardon;  but  the  sin  of  puritanism  and  nonconformity  is 
unpardonable,  and  therefore  you  must  fly  for  your  safety."  In- 
formers abounded  in  every  direction  ;  no  man  was  safe,  either  in 
public  or  in  private ;  and,  to  stop  the  tide  of  emigration,  all  per- 
sons, except  for  specified  purposes,  were  forbidden  to  leave  the 
kingdom  without  the  king's  license.! 

These  events  added  other  items  to  the  catalogue  of  crimes  sub- 
sequently to  be  remembered  by  an  indignant  parliament. 

Well  might  Prynne  afterwards  enumerate  Laud's  offences  with 
indignation,  and  speak  of  his  "  violent  acts  and  tyrannous  proceed- 
ings," —  "  by  war,  by  bloodshed,  rather  than  fail  in  his  designs ; 
by  cutting  off  ministers',  lawyers',  physicians',  and  mechanics'  ears ; 
searing  their  cheeks  ;  slitting  their  noses ;  whipping  them  openly 
through  the  streets  at  carts'  tails ;  banishing  them  their  country ; 
shutting  them  up  close  prisoners  in  remote  lands,  where  neither 
their  kindred,  friends,  wives  nor  children,  must  have  any  access  to 
them,  —  no,  nor  yet  once  set  footing  in  those  lands  to  inquire  how 
their  husbands  did,  under  pain  of  like  imprisonment.  Nor  have 
they  pen,  ink  or  paper,  once  allowed  to  them,  to  write  to  their 

*  Neal,  vol.  ii.,  p.  224. 

t  Clergymen  were  required  to  swear  that  they  would  never  consent  to  alter 
the  existing  form  of  prelatioal  goveriunent.  —  Nkal,  vol.  ii. 


CONTESTS   WITH    DESPOTISM.  99 

friends  for  necessaries  ;  and  by  a  bloody,  cruel  war  between  Eng- 
land and  Scotland,  which  Bishop  Pierce  truly  termed  Bellum 
Episcopale,  — '  the  bishops'  war.'  "  All  this  can  be  strictly  veri- 
fied by  contemporaneous  history.  Some  were  prosecuted  for  the 
violation  of  the  canon-law ;  some  for  reprehending  the  practice  of 
bowing  at  the  name  of  Jesus  ;  some  for  declaring  against  popish 
saints'  days ;  some  for  omitting  the  cross  in  baptism ;  one  for 
preaching  more  than  an  hour  on  Sunday  afternoon.  Another  was 
suspended  without  any  exhibited  charge.  Pierce,  the  Bishop  of 
Bath  and  Wells ;  Wren,  Bishop  of  Norwich ;  the  Bishop  of 
Chester,  and  others,  seconded  the  efiforts  of  Laud,  with  their 
whole  power  and  influence.  The  case  became  fearful.  Thousands 
emigrated  to  Holland,  or  to  New  England.  So  distasteful  was 
this  self-expatriation  to  the  court,  that  the  king  issued  a  proclama- 
tion, declaring  that  none  should  be  allowed  to  depart  without  tes- 
timonials of  conformity.  The  infection  of  puritanism,  neverthe- 
less, spread  extensively.  Every  measure  adopted  heightened  the 
spirit  of  resistance  to  such  monstrous  oppression.  The  materials 
which  had  been  long  gathering  into  one  huge  volume  of  combusti- 
ble matter  were  fired,  at  length,  by  the  insanity  of  the  king ;  and 
Laud,  Strafibrd,  prelacy,  lords,  and  the  king  himself,  perished  in 
the  tremendous  explosion. 

Never  was  there  a  more  memorable  series  of  events  than  that 
which  led  to  this  dire  conclusion !  It  was  truly  a  momentous  con- 
flict. Every  high  interest,  as  men  understood  the  matter  then, 
was  involved.  Right,  liberty,  religion,  —  that  is,  religion  accord- 
ing to  the  Jewish  polity,  which  was  nearly  as  far  as  that  age  could 
go,  —  were  dependent  on  the  issue.  Men  had  greatly  outgrown 
their  governments.  The  feudal  system  was  blown  out,  even  to  its 
last  spark.  There  was  a  deep  conviction  of  right,  and  that 
always  makes  men  strong.  A  growing  notion  of  a  noble  name, 
and  of  a  self-perpetuating  power,  loomed  before  their  eyes.  That 
name  and  power  are  now  embodied  in  the  phrase,  "  the  British 
people."  But  Charles  I.  little  thought  of  this.  He  sought  to  be 
all  that  his  predecessors  had  ever  been.     He  dreamed  not  of  pro- 


100  CONTESTS    WITH    DESPOTISJl. 

gi-ess.  He  endeavored  to  back  tlie  fierj  steed  ;  but  that  task  sur- 
passed his  powers.  Irritated  by  the  opposition,  he  had  recourse 
to  violence.  He  thought  that  will  could  do  it !  Blow  succeeded 
to  blow,  and  goad  to  goad,  yet  without  eJSect.  Therefore,  with 
Laud  and  Strafford  at  his  side,  he  had  recourse  to  greater  vio- 
lence. The  whip  was  more  vigorously  applied,  the  rowel  went 
deeper,  till  the  noble  steed  rose  with  one  furious  effort,  threw  off, 
by  a  sudden  plunge,  its  mad  rider,  and  left  him  dead !  This  is 
but  metaphorically  the  course  pursued  by  "  the  royal  martyr " 
towards  his  people.  "  The  advocates  of  Charles,"  says  Macaulay, 
in  that  brilliant  article  which  first  gave  him  fame,  "  like  the  advo- 
cates of  other  malefactors  against  whom  overwhelming  evidence  is 
produced,  generally  decline  all  controversy  about  the  facts,  and 
content  themselves  with  calling  testimony  to  character.  He  had 
so  many  private  virtues  !  And  had  James  II.  no  private  virtues  ? 
Was  even  Oliver  Cromwell,  his  bitterest  enemies  themselves  being 
judges,  destitute  of  private  virtues?  And  what,  after  all,  are  the 
virtues  ascribed  to  Charles  ?  A  religious  zeal,  not  more  sincere 
than  that  of  his  son,  and  fully  as  weak  and  narrow-minded,  and  a 
few  of  the  ordinary  household  decencies  which  half  the  tomb- 
stones in  England  claim  for  those  who  lie  beneath  them.  A  good 
father !  A  good  husband !  Ample  apologies,  indeed,  for  fifteen 
years  of  persecution,  tyranny,  and  falsehood !  We  charge  him 
with  having  broken  his  coronation  oath ;  we  are  told  that  he  kept 
his  marriage  vow !  We  accuse  him  of  having  given  up  his  people 
to  the  merciless  inflictions  of  the  most  hot-headed  and  hard-hearted 
of  prelates ;  and  the  defence  is,  that  he  took  his  little  son  on  his 
knee,  and  kissed  him !  We  censure  him  for  having  violated  the 
articles  of  the  Petition  of  Right,  after  having,  for  good  and  valu- 
able consideration,  promised  to  observe  them ;  and  we  are  informed 
that  he  was  accustomed  to  hear  prayers  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing !  It  is  to  such  considerations  as  these,  together  with  his  Van- 
dyke dress,  his  handsome  face,  and  his  peaked  beard,  that  he  owes, 
we  verily  believe,  most, of  his  popularity  with  the  present  genera- 
tion." 


CHAPTEK    IV. 


PIONEERS   OF    LIBERTY. 


**  An  honest  soul  is  like  a  ship  at  sea. 
That  sleeps  at  anchor  when  the  occasion  's  calm, 
But  when  it  rages,  and  the  wind  blows  high. 
She  cuts  her  way  with  skill  and  majesty." 

He  who  has  never  visited  the  Chiltern-hills  is  ignorant  of  one 
of  the  most  agreeable  varieties  of  English  scenery.  The  ever- 
varying  undulations  of  rapid  hill  and  dale,  the  thick  woods  of 
beech,  now  hanging  over  the  steep  declivities  and  now  distributing 
themselves  over  the  rich  meadows,  the  frequent  abrupt  turns  which 
present  points  of  scenery  altogether  unexpected,  the  pellucid  springs, 
the  steep  ravines,  and  the  richness  of  the  long-extended  vale  of 
Aylesbury,  which  stretches  itself  out  in  a  long  channel  of  luxu- 
riance, render  this  vicinity,  though  not  often  visited,  one  of  special 
interest  to  every  lover  of  nature  in  its  undress.  Not  many  miles 
distant  from  High  Wycombe,  in  Buckinghamshire,  and  perfectly 
shut  in  amidst  these  lovely  accompaniments,  is  an  old  ancestral 
mansion,  connected  in  its  history  with  one  of  the  noblest  biogra- 
phies, that  of  John  Hampden.  The  name  is  of  itself  an  English- 
man's inheritance.  In  these  deep  seclusions  the  patriot  lived ; 
here  he  nursed  his  soul  for  great  actions ;  to  this  delicious  spot  his 
mind,  jaded  by  public  cares,  often  turned  with  fond  longings  ;  and 
here  in  death  he  has  found,  by  the  side  of  his  cherished  wife,  a 
grave.  What  spot  can  furnish  more  attractive  materials  for  a 
passing  visit  ? 

The  family  of  Hampden  was  of  great  antiquity,  coeval  with  the 
9^ 


102  PIONEERS    0¥    LIBERTY. 

earliest  periods  of  authentic  history.  The  name  occurs  in  Domes- 
day book,  written  Hadena  (Hamdenam).  It  is  related  that  in  the 
fourteenth  century  the  family  was  one  of- the  wealthiest  in  Eng- 
land. It  is,  moreover,  told  how  one  of  the  ancestors  of  Hampden, 
having  quarrelled  with  the  Black  Prince  in  a  game  at  tennis, 
struck  his  royal  antagonist  with  the  racquet  with  which  he  was 
playing.  The  offence  was  grave ;  the  punishment  was  the  loss  of 
a  hand.  To  avoid  so  serious  a  penalty,  the  offender  gave  to  the 
prince  in  compensation  three  of  his  best  manors,  which  gave  occa- 
sion to  the  traditionary  distich  : 

"  Trrng,  Wing  and  Ivinghoe,*  did  go 
For  striking  the  Black  Prince  a  blow  ;  " 

and  the  memory  of  the  rhyme  furnished  a  title  for  one  of  Scott's 
most  popular  productions.  By  the  last  of  these  villages  the  North- 
western railway  passes,  immediately  before  reaching  the  Tring 
station,  which  itself  stands  in  one  of  the  manors  so  forfeited. 

The  family  mansion  of  the  Hampdens  is  of  great  antiquity.  It 
has  been  altered  many  times.  One  of  its  chambers  is  still  called 
King  John's  bedroom;  not  that  it  preserves  any  appearance  of  so 
ancient  a  time,  but  that  it,  or  some  part  of  it,  once  received  that 
monarch  during  a  visit  to  the  spot.  On  one  of  the  hills  in  the 
immediate  neighborhood  has  been  cut  a  white  cross,  which  may  be 
seen  to  a  great  distance,  and  bears  the  name  of  the  White  Leaf 
Cross,  supposed  to  have  been  left  as  a  memorial  of  the  last  battle 
of  Hengist  and  Horsa  with  the  Britons,  when  the  Saxons  planted 
their  standard  upon  this  eminence.  The  house  itself,  though  bear- 
ing some  marks  of  a  later  date,  is  of  the  age  of  Elizabeth,  who 
directed  one  of  her  royal  progresses  hither ;  on  which  occasion  the 
mansion  was  almost  rebuilt,  and  its  stately  and  extensive  avenues 
planted.  One  of  these,  visible  from  the  surrounding  neighbor- 
hood, still  bears  the  name  of  the  Queen's-gap.  The  edifice  is  net 
large,  nor  perhaps  convenient ;    but  it  has  suffered  no  very  exten- 

*  Scott*8  memory  failed  him  in  the  spelling. 


PIONEERS    GY    LIIIERTI'.  103 

s'lve  alterations,  md  is  a  striking  specimen,  though  in  great  dilap- 
idation, of  the  architecture  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  house 
is  not  seen  till  the  traveller  is  just  upon  the  spot,  nor  is  its  first 
view  very  imposing  or  even  antique,  its  principal  front  having 
been  repaired  during  the  time  probably  of  the  earlier  Georges,  in 
the  tamest  style  possible.  But  when  it  is  approached  on  the  side 
nearest  to  the  little  church  which  adjoins  it,  it  is  discovered  to  be 
a  castellated  mansion,  adorned  with  grotesque  and  arabesque  orna- 
ments, and  topped  by  tall  and  clustered  chimneys,  whilst  noble 
cedars  of  Lebanon,  of  a  great  age,  spread  out  their  branches  by 
its  side,  and  trees  of  large  dimensions  throw  their  protecting 
shadows  over  its  vicinity.  One  large  forest  tree  is  especially 
remarkable,  —  a  huge  elm,  —  under  the  shadow  of  which  a  small 
army  might  repose,  —  more  like  an  Indian  banyan-tree  than  one 
of  the  vegetable  productions  of  these  degenerate  latitudes,  —  full 
of  verdure  and  vigor,  and  likely  enough  yet  to  last  for  centuries. 

The  inside  of  the  house  more  than  redeems  the  promise  of  its 
outside.  A  large  hall,  now  called  the  billiard-room,  has  a  carved 
balustrade  running  round,  and  forming  a  gallery  which  at  once 
admits  to  the  sleeping  apartments,  and  which  heretofore  accommo- 
dated the  members  of  the  family,  when  they  assembled  as  specta- 
tors of  mimes  or  pageants  below.  The  principal  entrance  exhibits 
a  groined  and  coved  ceiling,  somewhat  in  the  style  of  a  crypt,  but 
bearing  traces  of  ancient  splendor.  The  India  room  is  fitted  up 
with  a  superfluity  of  arabesque  ornament,  and  is  extremely  beau- 
tiful, though  very  ancient.  The  richly-carved  mantel-piece,  the 
pendent  chandelier  of  colored  glass,  cut  into  forms  of  fruit  and 
foliage,  the  cabinets  and  appendages,  all  belong  to  the  days  of  the 
Virgin  Queen ;  whilst  the  windows  open  out  upon  a  large  and 
extensive  avenue,  diminishing  to  a  narrow  point  in  the  distance, 
formed  in  honor  of  that  great  monarch's  visit.  Beyond  the  India 
room  is  the  queen's  state  bed-room,  preserved  in  all  the  fashion  of 
1550,  though  the  silk  window-hangings  and  the  coverlid  of  the 
sleeping-couch  are  now  faded  and  tattered  with  age.  The  cabinet 
still  holds  the  innumerable  receptacles  for  the  toilet  conveniences 


101  PIONEERS  OF  LIBERTY. 

of  that  day,  and  before  it  that  ancient  lady  "  tricked  her  beams," 
spread  out  her  farthingale,  and  meditated,  perchance,  some  of  her 
many  schemes  of  regal  flirtation.  The  very  Tvashing-basin  is  pre- 
served, and  also  a  huge  pair  of  carved  bellows;  the  attendant 
naively  saying,  as  she  exhibited  the  latter,  that  she  did  not  know 
whether  Queen  Elizabeth  herself  had  used  them  or  not.  In  the 
library  is  preserved  a  volume,  exhibited  as  a  great  curiosity,  —  a 
family  Bible  belonging  to  the  Cromwell  family,  in  which  the  name 
of  Oliver  Cromwell  occurs,  written,  our  attendant  assures  us,  by 
the  protector  himself.  A  moment's  examination  convinced  us  that 
this  could  not  be ;  it  was  the  property,  evidently,  of  one  of  Oli- 
ver's uncles,  a  brother  of  the  protector's  father,  who  was,  it  may 
be  remembered,  brother  of  Hampden's  mother,  and  the  writing 
was  a  record  of  his  children,  one  of  whom  bore  the  name  of  the 
protector,  or  rather  of  the  protector's  uncle,  Sir  Oliver.  But 
as  the  visitor  ascends  the  massively-balustraded  staircase,  a  por- 
trait of  the  real  Oliver  presents  itself,  exhibiting  a  well-made  and 
not  inelegant  figure,  clad  in  the  half  armor  of  the  time ;  and, 
though  not  very  finely  painted  nor  well  preserved,  it  is  probably 
a  veritable  likeness.  Extending  along  the  top  of  the  house  is 
a  large  though  not  lofty  library,  its  chair  and  tables  evidently 
of  a  remote  date ;  commanding  a  magnificent  view  of  the  park 
and  of  its  grand  avenue,  and,  among  other  interesting  recollec- 
tions, exhibiting  a  portrait  of  John  Hampden  as  a  child  in  a 
go-cart !  Full  as  one  is  of  lofty  and  solemn  musings,  as  one 
traverses  a  house  associated  with  the  memory  of  so  great  a  name, 
the  unexpected  occurrence  is  almost  ludicrous,  —  a  step  from  the 
sublime  to  the  ridiculous !  Yet  "  the  child  is  father  of  the  man  ; " 
and  a  careful  observer  could  have  doubtless  detected,  even  at  that 
age,  the  traits  which  gave  to  Hampden  his  future  greatness ;  the 
kindliness,  urbanity,  self-sacrifice  and  integrity,  which  made  so 
noble  a  man ! 

John  Hampden  was  not  born  in  the  mansion  of  his  femily. 
Where  the  place  actually  was  will,  perhaps,  never  be  discovered. 
Probably  it  was  in  London.     Nor  is  the  year  precisely  known  ; 


PIO^'EEKS   OF    LIBERTY".  105 

probably  it  was  1594.  His  mother  was  a  daughter  of  Sir  Henry 
Cromwell,  of  Hinchiiibrcok  (of  which  place  we  shall  write  in  the 
next  chaptei-),  aunt,  as  we  have  said,  of  the  great  protector.  She 
appears  to  have  sympathized  but  little  with  the  politics  of  her  son; 
on  the  contrary,  she  was  aspiring  and  ambitious.  At  his  father's 
death,  John  Hampden  was  a  minor.  He  received  his  education  at 
Oxford,  where  he  was  coeval  with  Laud,  by  one  of  those  singular 
juxtapositions  which  sometimes  occur  in  history,  reminding  one  of 
a  house  to  be  seen  in  Derbyshire,  which  transmits  every  shower 
that  falls  upon  it  into  two  different  oceans,  one  east,  the  other 
west.  Laud  and  Hampden  were  associated  as  authors  of  the 
Oxford  congratulations  on  the  marriage  of  the  Elector  Palatine 
with  the  Princess  Elizabeth,  —  a  union  which  afterwards  called 
forth  the  bitterest  hostility  of  the  prelate,  wliilst  in  a  conflict  with 
their  son  Hampden  received  liis  death-blow. 

The  youth  of  the  patriot  was  probably  much  spent  in  the  hunt- 
ing diversions  of  his  native  residence.  He  is  traditionally  reported 
to  have  been  extremely  fcnd  of  the  chase,  in  which  amusement  he 
became  an  expert  horseman  ;  and  the  knowledge  he  gained  of  all 
the  passes  of  the  country  proved  of  signal  service  to  him  in  his 
future  military  career.  His  early  life  is  reported  by  Clarendon  to 
have  been  characterized  by  "great  pleasure  and  license,"  —  a 
stigma  anxiously  affixed  by  the  royalists  on  those  who  were  subse- 
quently distinguished  by  puritan  propensities.  But  he  married 
very  early  a  lady  in  every  way  worthy  of  his  future  character,  — 
a  daughter  of  Edmund  Symeon,  Esq.,  of  Pyrton,  in  Oxfordshire. 
The  next  year  he  entered  the  House  of  Commons,  as  member  from 
Grampound  (1620). 

AVhat  hopes  his  mother  formed  of  the  young  senator,  may  be 
learned  from  an  extant  letter  in  the  British  Museum  :  "If  ever 
my  sonn  will  seek  for  his  honor,  tell  him  nowe  to  come ;  for  heara 
is  multitudes  of  lords  a  making — Yicount  Mandvile,  lo.  Threaso- 
rer,  &c.,  &c.  I  am  ambitious  of  my  sonn's  honor,  which  I  wish 
were  nowe  conferred  upon  hime,  that  he  might  not  come  after  so 
many  new  creations."     But  it  was  not  by  dangling  at  the  court  of 


106  PIONEERS    OF    LIBERTY, 

James  that  Hampden  "  achieved  greatness."  He  took  his  stand, 
from  the  first,  by  the  side  of  freedom.  It  was  then  no  gaining 
cause,  and  he  did  not  live  to  witness  its  victory. 

Here,  amidst  these  woods,  and  in  these  foliaged  recesses,  as  often 
as  time  and  space  during  a  most  busy  life  would  allow,  was  Hamp- 
den found.  Devotedly  attached  to  domestic  life,  he  might  seem 
to  have  full  materials  of  the  purest  enjoyment  placed  within  his 
reach.  He  was  beloving  and  beloved;  he  was  far  beyond  the 
reach  of  want ;  he  had  learned  to  regard  religion  as  the  food  and 
medicine  of  his  soul.  It  was  about  this  period  that  his  cousin 
Oliver  Cromwell  underwent  that  change  of  sentiment  regarding 
religion,  which,  it  is  likely,  awoke  in  his  bosom  sympathetic  and 
corresponding  emotions.  But  there  was  rising  up  before  his  view 
in  England's  history  a  future  over  which  every  dark  cloud  seemed 
to  concentrate  its  shadow ;  and  Hampden's  mind  could  not  rest  in 
peace  when  such  disturbed  elements  were  around  him.  The  name 
of  Buckingham  was  getting  famous,  or  rather  infamous,  and  that 
of  Laud  was  becoming  notorious  with  it.  Hampden  felt  that,  when 
evil  was  so  dominant,  he  too  had  a  work  to  do,  and  that  the  senate 
was  the  appropriate  sphere  for  executing  it.  Much  of  his  time 
was  spent  at  this  period  in  those  heavy  but  important  studies  of 
parliamentary  papers  and  similar  documents,  without  which  no 
senator  can  be  pronounced  accomplished,  or  even  qualified  for  his 
position.  Lord  Nugent  tells  us  that  there  is  abundant  evidence  of 
the  labor  bestowed  at  this  period  by  the  young  member  on  ques- 
tions of  precedent  and  privilege. 

Such  stormy  times  as  those  of  which  we  write  demanded  also 
much  counsel  and  compact.  Many  were  the  conferences  held  at 
the  various  houses  of  the  leading  patriots.  One  may  seem  yet  to 
see  among  these  Hampden  glades,  or  in  those  wildernesses,  grouped 
in  a  mass,  or  distributed  into  earnest  parties  of  two  or  three,  such 
men  as  Pym  and  Sir  John  Eliot,  Hampden's  friends ;  Cromwell 
his  cousin.  Lord  Manchester  his  neighbor,  the  witty  Lord  War- 
wick, the  stern  Lord  Say,  the  pious  Lord  Brooke.  What  discus- 
sions have  not  been  held  in  that  library !  what  lettere  have  not 


PIONEERS  OF  LIBERTY.  107 

been  written  on  those  venerable  tables  !  A  house  adjoining,  built 
in  a  style  not  altogether  unlike  that  of  Hampden  itself,  and  bear- 
ing the  name  of  the  Checquers,  is  reported  to  have  been  a  fre- 
quent place  of  such  meetings. 

In  a  dressing-room  of  Hampden-house,  distinguished  by  the 
beauty  of  the  painted  window  which  opens  towards  the  ancient 
church,  is  preserved  a  small  row  or  two  of  those  "  dumpy  quartos" 
which  swarmed  like  flics  in  autumn  at  the  period  of  the  common- 
wealth. The  visitor  turns  them  over  with  uncommon  interest, 
and  longs  to  be  able  to  sit  down  and  peruse  them  at  his  leisure. 
Many  of  them  relate  to  the  questions  of  royal  prerogative  then 
agitated.  The  part  taken  in  this  matter  by  Hampden  forms  the 
"  stand-point  "  in  his  history. 

When  Charles  dissolved  his  second  parliament  for  impeaching 
the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  and  for  insisting  on  a  redress  of  griev- 
ances, he,  by  advice  of  Laud,  had  recourse  to  forced  loans  for  the 
supply  of  his  wants.  Hampden  resolved  to  resist  the  arbitrary 
demand.  It  was  at  no  slight  expense  that  he  did  so.  None  can 
look  round  on  his  lovely  and  sequestered  residence,  in  every 
respect  so  congenial  with  his  literary  =^  and  domestic  tastes,  with- 
out feeling  that,  to  expose  himself  to  the  risk  of  losing  by  a  for- 
ward movement  quiet,  property,  rank,  liberty,  peace  and  fame,  was 
the  highest  sacrifice  which  patriotism  could  demand.  But  he  res- 
olutely made  it.  When  questioned  on  what  ground  he  refused  to 
lend  money  to  the  king,  his  reply  was,  "  that  he  could  be  content 
to  lend  as  well  as  others,  but  feared  to  draw  upon  himself  that 
curse  in  Magna  Charta,  which  should  be  read  twice  a  year  against 
those  who  infringe  it."  The  result  was,  that  Hampden  was  torn 
away  from  his  home,  and  shut  up  in  the  Gate-house,  as  were  also 
Sir  John  Eliot  and  many  others.  After  some  imprisonment,  the 
question  whether  he  would  pay  was  repeated,  and,  on  his  renewed 
refusal,  he  was  imprisoned  in  Hampshire. 

When  Charles  resolved  upon  calling  the  parliament  of  1628, 

*  Hampden's  literary  attainments  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  it  was 
once  in  contemphvtion  to  appoint  him  tutor  to  the  Prince  of  Wales. 


108  PIONEEKS    OF    LIBERTY. 

Hampden  was,  as  a  matter  of  conciliation,  set  at  liberty.  It  was 
not  easy,  however,  to  banish  from  his  mind  the  hardships  he  had 
personally  undergone,  or  those  others  with  which  his  imprisonment 
in  the  Gate-house  must  necessarily  have  made  him  familiar. 

Not  very  far  from  Hampden,  nestling  in  a  quiet  nook  of  the 
surrounding  hills,  and  still  bearing  upon  its  aspect  the  traces  of 
considerable  antiquity,  stands  the  little  pleasant  town  of  Wendo- 
ver.  About  the  time  of  which  we  speak,  this  little  borough  had 
recovered,  in  spite  of  King  James,"  its  franchise,  which  by  the 
reform  bill  it  has  since  lost.  This  was  the  borough  which  Hamp- 
den represented  several  times  in  the  legislature.  He  became  a 
prominent  man  on  all  questions  involving  either  liberty  or  religion. 
Among  other  subjects  on  which  he  was  engaged,  one  was  "  for  the 
better  continuance  of  peace  and  unity  in  the  church  and  common- 
wealth." Another,  "on  acts  against  scandalous  and  unworthy 
ministers;"  another,  "  on  redressing  the  neglect  of  preaching  and 
catechising ; "  another,  "  to  examine  into  the  legality  of  the  impris- 
onment of  Williams,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  by  Laud  ;  "  another,  "  to 
inquire  into  the  proceedings  of  the  Star  Chamber  ; "  and  another, 
"  for  giving  increased  liberty  t9  hear  the  Word  of  God."  From 
this  it  will  appear  that  on  the  many  questions  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty  agitated  at  that  period,  Hampden  was  a  most  distinguished 
advocate  of  sacred  franchises.  No  man  was  more  deeply  concerned 
than  himself  in  the  preparation  of  the  "  Petition  of  Right,"  the 
king's  signature  to  which  the  parliament  purchased  for  five  sub- 
sidies. But,  purchased  though  that  celebrated  petition  was,  it 
was  violated  even  before  the  parliament  which  had  passed  it  was 
dissolved.  The  king,  in  opposition  to  its  provisions,  continued  to 
raise  taxes  under  the  name  of  "  tonnage  and  i30undage,"  without 
consent  of  parliament.  The  commons  protested,  exclaimed,  grew 
inflamed,  and  the  impetuous  Eliot  led  the  way  against  the  king, 
who  for  a  moment  quailed  before  the  storm.  A  fierce  onslaught 
on  the  encouragement  which  had  been  given  to  Arminianism,  was 
the  signal  for  a  vigorous  attack  on  Laud  ;  and  the  result  was,  that 
a  vote  was  entered  upon  the  journals  that  "  the  commons  of  Eng- 


PIONEERS    OF    LIBERTY.  109 

land  claimed,  professed  and  avowed  for  truth,  that  sense  of  the 
articles  of  religion  which  were  established  in  parliament  in  the 
thirteenth  year  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  which,  by  the  public  acts  of 
the  Church  of  England,  and  by  the  general  and  current  exposition 
of  the  writers  of  that  church,  had  been  declared  unto  them ;  and 
that  they  rejected  the  sense  of  the  Jesuits,  Arminians,  and  of  all 
others  wherein  they  differed  from  it."  Simultaneously  with  this 
movement  Eliot  drew  up  a  most  vigorous  protest,  declaring  that  he 
who  should  attempt  to  bring  in  popery,  or  who  should  counsel  the 
king  to  levy  tonnage  and  poundage,  should  be  reputed  a  capital 
enemy  to  the  king  and  commonwealth ;  and  that  any  person  pay- 
ing the  subsidies  without  consent  of  parliament  should  be  reputed 
"  a  betrayer  of  the  liberty  of  England,  and  an  enemy  to  the 
same."  When  this  resolution  was  submitted  to  the  house,  on  the 
last  day  of  Sir  John  Eliot's  senatorial  career,  the  following  scene 
occurred  :  After  a  powerful  speech,  "  Eliot  concluded,  as  if  by  a 
forecast  of  the  future,  with  these  memorable  words,  —  *  I  protest, 
as  I  am  a  gentleman,  if  my  fortune  be  ever  again  to  meet  in  this 
honorable  assembly,  where  I  now  leave,  I  will  begin  again.'  Ad- 
vancing to  the  speaker.  Sir  John  Eliot  then  produced  his  remon- 
strance, and  desired  that  he  would  read  it.  The  speaker  refused. 
He  presented  it  to  the  clerk  at  the  table.  The  clerk  also  refused. 
With  fearless  determination,  Eliot  now  read  the  remonstrance  him- 
self, and  demanded  of  the  speaker,  as  a  right,  that  he  should  put 
it  to  the  vote.  Again  the  speaker  refused.  *  He  was  commanded 
otherwise  by  the  king.'  A  severe  reprimand  followed  from  Sel- 
den,  and  the  speaker  rose  to  quit  the  chair.  Denzil  Holies  and 
Valentine  dragged  him  back.  Sir  Thomas  Edmonds,  and  other 
privy  councillors,  made  an  attempt  to  rescue  him,  but  'with  a 
strong  hand '  he  was  held  down  in  the  chair,  and  Hollis  swore  he 
should  sit  still  till  it  pleased  them  to  rise.  The  house  was  now  in 
open  and  violent  disorder.  The  speaker  weepingly  implored  them 
to  let  him  go ;  and  Sir  Peter  Hay  man,  in  reply,  renounced  him 
for  his  kinsman,  as  the  disgrace  of  his  country,  the  blot  of  a  noble 
family,  and  a  man  whom  posterity  would  rememljer  with  scorn  and 
10 


110  PIONEERS  OF    LIBERTY. 

disdain.  Every  moment  increased  the  disorder,  till  at  last  it 
threatened  the  most  serious  consequences.  Some  members  invol- 
untarily placed  their  hands  upon  their  swords.  Above  the  throng 
was  again  heard  the  voice  of  the  steady  and  undaunted  Eliot :  '  I 
shall  then  express  by  my  tongue  what  that  paper  should  have  done.' 
He  flung  it  down  upon  the  floor,  and  placed  the  protestations  in  the 
hands  of  Hollis.  '  It  shall  be  declared  by  us,'  he  exclaimed,  *  that 
all  that  we  suffer  is  the  effect  of  new  counsels,  to  the  ruin  of  the 
government  of  the  state.  Let  us  make  a  protestation  against  those 
men,  whether  greater  or  subordinate,  that  may  hereafter  persuade 
the  king  to  take  tonnage  and  poundage  without  grant  of  parlia- 
ment. We  declare  them  capital  enemies  to  the  king  and  the 
kingdom  !  If  any  merchants  shall  willingly  pay  those  duties, 
without  consent  of  parliament,  they  are  declared  accessaries  to  the 
rest ! '  Hollis  instantly  read  Eliot's  paper,  put  it  to  the  house  in 
the  character  of  speaker,  and  was  answeced  by  tremendous  acclama- 
tions. During  this,  the  king  had  sent  the  serjeant,  to  bring  away 
the  mace ;  but  he  could  not  obtain  admission,  and  the  usher  of  the 
black  rod  had  followed  with  the  same  ill  success.  In  an  extrem- 
ity of  rage,  Charles  then  sent  for  the  captain  of  his  guard  to  force 
an  entrance.  But  a  later  and  yet  more  disastrous  day  was 
reserved  for  that  outrage ;  for,  meanwhile,  Eliot's  resolutions 
having  been  passed,  the  doors  were  thrown  open,  and  the  members 
rushed  out  in  a  body,  carrying  a  king's  officer  that  w^as  standing  at 
the  entrance  'away  before  them  in  the  crowd.'  Such  was  the 
scene  of  Monday,  the  2nd  of  March,  1629,  '  the  most  gloomy  and 
portentous  day  for  England  that  had  happened  for  five  hundred 
years.'  The  king  instantly  went  down  to  the  House  of  Lords,  called 
the  leaders  of  the  commons  '  vipers,'  who  should  have  their  rewards, 
and  dissolved  the  parliament."  =* 

Several  of  the  leading  patriots  were  imprisoned,  amongst  whom 
was  Eliot,  who  died  before  he  recovered  his  liberty. 

Hampden  was  now  again  at  his  country  seat ;  but  his  heart  was 

*  Forster's  Life  of  Sir  J.  Eliot. 


PIONEERS   OF    LIBEKTY.  Ill 

with  his  captive  friend,  with  whom  he  kept  up  a  regular  corre- 
spondence, and  whose  sons  were  intrusted  to  Hampden's  charge. 
The  following  letter,  which  has  been  exhibited  this  year  (1851)  in 
the  British  Museum,  will  afford  a  beautiful  illustration  of  the 
nature  of  this  correspondence  : 

"  Noble  Sir  :  'T  is  well  for  me  that  letters  cannot  blush,  else 
you  would  easily  read  me  guilty.  I  am  ashamed  of  so  long  a 
silence,  and  know  not  how  to  excuse  it ;  for  as  nothing  but  busi- 
nesse  can  speake  for  mee,  of  w'^  kind  I  have  many  advocates,  so 
can  I  not  tell  how  to  call  any  businesse  greater  than  holding  an 
affectionate  correspondence  with  so  excellent  a  friend.  My  only 
confidence  is,  I  pleade  at  a  barr  of  love,  where  absolutions  are 
much  more  frequent  than  censures.  Sure  I  am  that  conscience  of 
neglect  doth  not  accuse  me;  though  evidence  of  fact  doth.  I 
would  add  more,  but  y"  e.ntertainment  of  a  stranger  friend  calls 
upon  me,  and  one  other  inevitable  occasion ;  hold  mee  excused, 
therefore,  deare  friend ;  and  if  you  vouchsafe  mee  a  letter,  lett 
mee  beg  of  you  to  teach  mee  some  thrift  of  time ;  that  I  may 
imploy  more  in  your  service,  who  will  ever  be 

"  Your  faithful  servant  and  affectionate  friend, 

"  Jo.  Hampden. 

"  Commend  my  service  to  y^  soldier,  if  not  gone  to  his  colors."^ 

"  Hampden,  March  21." 

About  this  time  an  event  occurred  which  doubtless  modified  to 
a  considerable  extent  the  subsequent  career  of  this  admirable  man. 
We  have  seen  how  open  his  whole  nature  was  to  the  delights  of 
domestic  privacy ;  and  it  seems  almost  directly  providential,  that 
at  the  moment  when  his  country  demanded  him,  the  closest  of  all 
those  ties  which  interfered  with  that  paramount  claim  was  suddenly 
dissolved.  When  Hampden  was  already  beginning  to  admit  the 
thought  of  the  terrible  national  crisis  which  was  approaching,  and 
was  intent  on  the  study  of  Davila's  "  History  of  the  Civil  Wars 

♦  One  of  Eliot's  sons,  then  on  a  visit  to  his  father  in  the  Tower. 


112 


PIONEEllS    OF    LIBERTY. 


of  France,"  his  beloved  wife  sickened  and  died.  The  depth  and 
fervor  of  Hampden's  affection  for  her  may  be  conjectured  from  the 
annexed  epitaph,  placed  by  her  desolate  husband  in  the  church 
which  immediately  adjoins  his  mansion. 


2Co  tfje  eternal  niemorg 

OP   THE   TRUELY 

YERTUOUS   AND   PIOUS 

ELIZABETH   HAMPDEN   WIFE    OF    JOHN 

HAMPDEN    OF   GREAT   HAMPDEN   ESQUIER 

SOLE   DAUGHTER    &    HEIRE   OF   EDMUND 

SYMEON   OF   PYRTON   IN   THE   COUNTY   OP 

OXON   ESQ.    THE   TEN'DER   MOTHER 

OF   A   HAPPY    OFSPRING   IN    9 

HOPEFUL   CHILDREN 

Kii  Ijer  pilfltimaije 

THE   STAIE   &    COMFORT  OF   HER   NEIGHBOURS 

THE   JOIE    &;    GLORY    OF   A   WELL   ORDERED   FAMILY 

THE   DELIGHT    &    HAPPINESS    OF   TENDER   PARENTS 

BUT  A   CROWNE   OF   BLESSINGS   TO   A  HUSBAND 

fill  a  WiU 

TO   ALL   AN   ETERNALL   PATERNE   OF    GOODNES 
AND    CAUSE   OF    JOIE   WHILE   SHE   WAS. 

fin  l)cr  Dissolution 

A  I-OSSE  UNVALUABLE   TO -EACH   YET  HERSELFB 

BLEST  AND   THEY   FULLY   RECUMPENED   IN   HER 

TRANSLATION   FROM  A  TABERNACLE   OF   CLAYE 

AND   FELLOWSHIP   W™   MORTALS  TO   A  CELESTIALL 

MANSION    &   COMMUNION   W™   A  DEITY   THE 

20tl)  irau  of  awflust  1634. 

JOHN   HAMPDEN    HER   SORROWFUL 

HUSBAND   IN   PERPETUALL  TESTIMONY 

OF  HIS   CONIUGALL  LOVE  HATH 

DEDICATED   THIS 

i^onument. 


PIONEERS    OF    LIBERTY. 


113 


Those  only  who  have  experienced  the  loss  of  so  dear  a  relative 
can  understand  the  sensations  with  which  this  generous  and  ardent 
spirit  would  retire  from  the  church  in  which  he  had  just  deposited 
the  remains  of  her  he  had  loved  so  well.  How  sad  and  solitary 
was  now  that  widowed  heart !  How  often  would  he  visit  the  spot 
become  so  sacred,  or  trace  the  memory  of  his  cherished  companion 
in  the  scenes  and  seclusions  they  had  so  often  visited  together ! 

Nothing  can  be  more  beautiful  than  is  the  position  of  the  little 
ecclesiastical  structure  which  holds  the  remains  of  Hampden's  wife. 
It  stands  in  the  midst  of  the  park,  within  a  very  few  steps  of  the 
mansion,  and  is  overhung  by  beech-trees  of  the  largest  size.  Its 
interior  is  mainly  such  as  it  must  have  been  in  the  time  of  Hamp- 
den himself.  Its  carved  oaken  pews  have  a  massiveness  extremely 
unlike  the  present  style  of  church  erection.  Beneath  its  chancel 
many  of  Hampden's  ancestors  lie ;  and  the  foot  of  the  visitor,  as  he 
paces  the  aisle,  treads  upon  the  monumental  brasses  which  mark 
their  last  resting-place.  Hampden's  monument'  to  his  wife  is  a 
simple  slab  of  Derbyshire  marble,  originally  without  decoration  of 
any  kind,  though  modern  hands  have  attempted  to  add  some  slight 
adornments;  in  bad  taste,  however;  for  it  seems  as  if  he  who 
placed  it  there  had  disdained  the  artificial,  and  had  been  anxious 
for  no  paraded  display  of  his  real  grief.  Within  that  pew,  —  now 
renovated  and  curtained  round,  —  his  manly  countenance  clouded 
by  inexpressible  grief,  would  sit  Hampden,  surrounded  by  his 
tenantry,  to  hear  from  some  puritan  minister  of  the  day  the  lessons 
read  to  the  living  by  voiceless  death ;  he,  perhaps,  taking  a  review 
of  the  excellences  of  the  departed  lady,  and  offering  to  the  afflicted 
husband  such  consolations  as  evangelical  religion  oflfers  to  the 
mourner.  Nine  years  after,  the  husband  was  himself  laid  by  the 
side  of  his  lamented  companion  ! 

But  sterner  duties  now  awaited  the  patriot.  In  1635  Charles 
issued  his  writs  of  ship-money ;  ^  and,  amongst  other  places,  they 

*  Clarendon  tells  us  that  the  king  had  gained  two  hundred  thousand  pounds 
in  ten  years  by  the  ship-money  project.  But  only  a  fraction  of  that  sum  found 
its  way  to  the  royal  exchequer. 


114  -    PIONEERS    OF    LIBEllTY. 

reached  the  parish  of  Great  Kimble,  at  the  base  of  the  Chiltern 
Hills,  not  far  from  Great  Hampden,  and  on  the  estate  which 
belonged  to  Hampden's  ancestral  residence.  Instead  of  payment, 
the  constables  and  assessors  returned  a  protest;  and  foremost 
among  the  names  is  that  of  John  Hampden,  who  was  amerced 
in  the  sum  of  twenty  shillings,  —  "  as  a  passport,"  says  Lord 
Nugent,  "  for  the  rest  to  an  honorable  memory  so  long  as  the  love 
of  liberty  shall  retain  a  place  in  the  hearts  of  the  British  nation." 

The  well-known  case  was  brought  before  the  courts  of  law  with 
much  preparation  on  both  sides  ;  and,  after  a  display  of  the  highest 
style  of  legal  pleading  by  St.  John,  till  then  almost  unknown,  the 
judges  pronounced  in  favor  of  ship-money,  by  a  majority  of  seven 
out  of  twelve.  The  victory  was,  however,  in  fact,  a  defeat ;  and 
though  the  king's  messengers  continued  to  levy  the  hateful  tax, 
they  enforced  it  upon  a  people  now  thoroughly  aroused  and  indig- 
nant. Clarendon  tells  us  that  "the  judgment  proved  of  more 
advantage  and  credit  to  the  gentlemen  condemned  than  to  the 
king's  service."  It  was  a  grand  era  in  the  history  of  a  great 
nation's  liberties  ! 

Hampden,  soon  after  this  period,  was  returned,  for  the  county 
of  Buckingham,  to  Charles'  next  parliament,  and  left  the  Chiltern 
Hills,  as  a  residence,  forever.  They  had  probably  become  distaste- 
ful to  him  since  the  death  of  his  wife ;  and  the  large  amount  of 
public  business  now  pressing  on  his  attention  rendered  a  residence 
in  town  indispensable.  He  took  lodgings  in  Gray's  Inn-lane,  and 
afterwards  in  Old  Palace-yard,  Westminster,  near  to  Pym,  now 
the  leader  —  though  Hampden  was  scarcely  second  —  of  the  lib- 
eral party  in  the  House  of  Commons.  What  kind  of  a  speaker  he 
was,  we  learn  from  Lord  Clarendon,  who  describes  him  as  "  not  a 
man  of  many  words,  who  rarely  begun  the  discourse,  or  made  the 
first  entrance  upon  any  business  that  was  assumed,  but  a  very 
weighty  speaker;  and,  after  he  had  heard  a  full  debate,  and 
observed  how  the  House  was  like  to  be  inclined,  took  up  the  argu- 
ment, and  shortly,  and  clearly,  and  craftily  so  stated  it,  that  he 
commonly  conducted  it  to  the  conclusion  he  desired ;  and  if  he 


PIONEERS    OF    LIBERTY.  115 

found  he  could  not  do  that,  he  never  was  without  the  dexterity  to 
divert  the  debate  to  another  time,  and  to  prevent  the  determining 
anything  in  the  negative  which  might  prove  inconvenient  in  the 
future."  The  same  thing  may  be  inferred  from  an  examination 
of  Hampden's  letters,  in  which  courtesy  and  kindness,  always  pre- 
dominant, are  often  made  the  agreeable  vehicle  of  conveying  truths 
otherwise  likely  to  prove  salutary,  but  unpalatable.  He  had 
evidently  great  power  over  the  minds  of  others ;  and,  as  a  natural 
correlative,  large  control  over  his  own.  The  amount  of  business 
which  he  transacted  during  this  parliament  was  extraordinary. 
In  the  course  of  six  weeks  we  find  him  thus  engaged  :  on  a  com- 
mittee respecting  the  bill  against  spiritual  pluralities  ;  assisting  in 
managing  matters  relative  to  the  Earl  of  Strafford ;  on  a  committee 
respecting  the  seduction  of  the  king's  army ;  on  a  committee 
respecting  the  queen-mother  and  the  tumults  in  London ;  on  a 
committee  respecting  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom  ;  on  a  committee 
respecting  the  affairs  of  Jersey  and  Guernsey;  on  committee 
respecting  patent  of  wines  ;  on  committee  respecting  tonnage  and 
poundage ;  on  committee  respecting  melting  the  plate  of  the  king- 
dom ;  on  committees  respecting  removing  bishops  from  temporal 
concerns ;  on  the  impeachment  of  Laud ;  on  disbanding  the  armies ; 
on  the  abolition  of  the  Star  Chamber;  on  danger  from  popish 
recusants ;  on  danger  of  popish  vestments ;  concerning  a  branch 
of  a  statute  in  things  ecclesiastical ;  for  giving  thanks  to  the  lord 
admiral  and  Lord  EsvSex  ;  and  on  a  deputation  for  waiting  on  Lord 
Northumberland.  This  is  but  a  fraction  of  a  list  of  parliamentary 
engagements  which  extended  over  a  considerable  period. 

It  will  have  been  observed  by  the  reader  that  many  of  these 
questions  on  which  Hampden  exercised  his  high  talents  were 
ecclesiastical  ones.  It  will  also  have  been  observed  with  regret 
that  Hampden  did  not  extend  to  the  papists  the  liberty  which  he 
claimed  as  a  puritan.  Still,  regarded  on  the  large  scale,  the  course 
taken  by  Hampden  and  Pym  was  equally  creditable  to  their  heart 
and  their  head  ;  and,  with  a  full  margin  allowed  for  their  errors, 
it  must  be  allowed  that  they  were  greatly  in  advance  of  their  age. 


116  PIONEERS    OF    LIBERT r. 

In  Pym's  speech  before  this  parliament,  on  the  redress  of  griev- 
ances, he  says : 

"  The  greatest  liberty  of  the  kingdom  is  religion,  whereby  we 
are  free  from  spiritual  evils ;  and  no  impositions  are  so  grievous 
as  those  that  are  laid  upon  the  soul."  Again  —  the  admission  was 
a  large  one  for  the  age  :  —  "  I  do  not  desire  any  new  laws  against 
popery,  or  any  rigorous  course  in  the  execution  of  those  already  in 
force ;  I  am  far  from  seeking  the  ruin  of  their  persons  or  estates ; 
only  I  wish  they  may  be  kept  in  such  a  condition  as  may 
restrain  them  from  doing  hurt,"  But  he  complained  of  the  license 
given  to  popish  books  and  ceremonies,  and  that  thereby  "  a  shape 
and  face  of  poperie  "  had  been  given  to  the  churches.  After  com- 
plaining of  the  court  of  Star  Chamber  as  "  an  instrument  of  erect- 
ing and  defending  monopolies  and  other  grievances,"  he  goes  on  to 
say,  "  Although  he  was  come  as  high  as  he  could  on  earth,  yet  the 
presumption  of  evil  men  did  lead  him  one  step  higlier  —  even  as 
high  as  heaven,  as  high  as  the  throne  of  God  !  It  is  Yiow  grown 
common  for  ambitious  and  corrupt  men  of  the  clergy  to  abuse  the 
truth  of  God  and  the  bond  of  conscience,  ^  =^  pretending  divine 
authority  for  an  absolute  power  in  the  king  to  do  what  he  will 
with  our  persons  and  goods.  This  hath  been  so  often  published  in 
sermons  and  printed  books,  that  it  is  now  the  highway  to  prefer- 
ment." The  effect  of  this  most  vigorous  and  able  speech  was  so 
strong  as  to  lead  the  king  to  dissolve  the  parliament. 

Great  was  the  consternation  with  which  the  news  of  this  dis- 
solution was  received  by  the  nation  at  large.  But  some  of  the 
more  long-sighted  leaders  saw  in  the  arbitrary  act  an  omen  for 
good.  Oliver  St.  John  especially  told  Hyde — afterwards  Lord 
Clarendon  —  that  "  all  was  well,  and  that  it  must  be  worse  before 
it  could  be  better." 

Pym  and  Hampden  now  took  a  more  decided  course  against  the 
royal  tyranny.  They  made  common  cause  with  the  army  of  Scot- 
land, then  advancing  beyond  the  border.  The  king's  army  refused 
to  fight  against  them ;  and  Charles  was  compelled,  after  much  hes- 
itation, to  summon  another  parliament.  He  could  never  dissolve 
that  parliament  again  I 


PIONEERS   OF   LIBERTY.  117 

In  this  Long  Parliament,  which,  comprised  men  of  such  abilities 
as  had  never  been  gathered  into  an  English  senate  before,  Pjm 
and  Hampden  were  the  avowed  leaders,  —  the  former  being  the 
most  forward,  the  latter  the  most  trusted  man.  "  I  am  persuaded," 
says  Clarendon,  writing  of  Hampden,  "  that  his  power  and  interest 
at  that  time  were  greater  to  do  good  and  hurt  than  any  man's  in 
the  kingdom,  or  than  any  man  of  his  rank  hath  had  in  any  time ; 
for  his  reputation  of  honesty  was  universal,  and  his  afiections 
seemed  so  publicly  guided  that  no  corrupt  or  private  ends  could 
bias  them.  =^  ^  He  was,  indeed,  a  very  wise  man,  and  of  great 
parts ;  and  possessed  with  the  most  absolute  spirit  of  popularity, 
and  the  most  absolute  faculties  to  govern  the  people,  of  any  man  I 
ever  knew."  It  was  now  no  carpet  warfare.  Pym  is  known  to 
have  said  to  Hyde,  "  that  they  must  now  be  of  another  temper 
than  they  were  the  last  parliament; "  "  that  they  must  now  not  only 
sweep  the  house  clean  below,  but  nmst  pull  down  all  the  cob- 
webs which  hung  in  the  tops  and  corners,  that  they  might  not 
breed  dust,  and  so  make  a  foul  house  hereafter :  that  they  had 
now  an  opportunity  to  make  their  country  happy,  by  removing 
all  grievances,  and  pulling  up  the  causes  of  them  by  the  roots,  if 
all  men  would  do  their  duties."  The  conflict  had  begun  in 
earnest.  The  Earl  of  Strafford  was  the  first  against  whom  the 
hostilities  were  directed.  Men  felt  that  they  had  a  great  work 
to  do,  and  they  did  it  thoroughly.  Strafford  was  impeached; 
monoiX)lies  were  denounced;  ship-money  was  proclaimed  a  sub- 
version of  law;  Laud's  recent  canons  were  declared  hostile  to 
the  liberties  of  the  subject;  and  a  petition,  signed  by  fifteen 
thousand  citizens  of  London,  which  prayed  that  episcopal  gov- 
ernment might  be  abolished,  with  all  its  dependencies,  called  from 
its  nature  "the  root  and  branch  petition,"  was  brought  into  the 
houses.  This  was  met  by  a  counter-petition  in  favor  of  the 
hierarchy,  in  which  the  petitioners  declare  "  that  since  tlie 
reformation  the  times  have  been  very  peaceable,  happy,  and 
glorious,"  and  that  "  so  much  care  is  taken  that  no  man  should  be 
offended  in  the  least  ceremony."  In  a  similar  strain  we  find  Lord 
Clarendon  saying,  "  Now,  after  this,  I  must  be  so  just  as  to  say, 


118  PIONEERS    OF    LIBERTY. 

that  from  the  dissolution  of  parliament,  in  the  fourth  year  of  the 
king,  to  the  beginning  of  the  Long  Parliament,  which  was  about 
twelve  years,  this  kingdom  and  all  his  majesty's  dominions 
enjoyed  the  greatest  calm  and  the  fullest  measure  of  felicity  that 
any  people,  in  any  age,  for  so  long  time  together,  have  been 
blessed  with,  to  the  wonder  and  envy  of  all  parts  of  Christendom." 
=^  ^  "  Charles  might  have  said  that  which  Pericles  was  proud  of 
upon  his  death-bed  concerning  his  citizens  —  that  no  Englishman 
had  worn  a  mourning  gown  through  his  occasion.  In  a  word, 
many  wise  men  thought  it  a  time  wherein  those  two  adjuncts, 
imperium  and  libertas,  were  as  well  reconciled  as  possible."  Such 
is  the  spirit  and  truth  of  party !  Prelates  were  now  censured  or 
impeached ;  the  secretary  and  lord  keeper  fled  to  Holland ;  and 
the  lord  chief  justice  was  publicly  arrested  in  the  court  in  which 
he  was  sitting,  and  consigned  to  prison.  "  The  civility  of  our  law 
tells  us,"  said  Pym,  "  that  the*king  can  do  no  wrong ;  but  then 
only  is  the  state  secure  when  judges,  their  ministers,  dare  do 
none.  Since  our  times  have  found  the  want  of  such  examples, 
't  is  fit  we  leave  some  to  posterity."  "  The  power  of  future  pre- 
servation," said  Pym,  "  is  now  in  us.  Et  qui  non  servat  patriam 
cum  potest,  idem  tradit  destruenti  patriam.  What  though  we 
cannot  restore  the  damage  of  the  commonwealth,  we  may  yet 
repair  the  breaches  in  the  bounds  of  monarchy  :  though  it  be  with 
our  loss  and  charge,  we  shall  so  leave  our  children's  children 
fenced  as  with  a  wall  of  safety,  by  the  restoration  of  our  laws  to 
their  ancient  vigor  and  lustre."  "  When  religion  is  innovated, 
our  liberties  violated,  our  fundamental  laws  abrogated,  our  modern 
laws  already  obsoleted,  the  property  of  our  states  alienated,  noth- 
ing left  us  we  can  call  our  own  but  our  misery  and  our  patience, 
— if  ever  any  nation  might  justifiably,  we  certainly  may  now,  most 
properly,  most  seasonably,  cry  out,  and  cry  aloud,  '  Vel  sacra  reg' 
Qiet  justitia,  vel  mat  codum .' ' " 

"  Shall  it  be  treason,"  again  Pym  says,  "  to  embase  the  king's 
coin,  though  it  be  but  a  piece  of  twelve-pence  or  six-pence  ?  and 
must  it  not  needs  be  the  effect  of  a  greater  treason  to  embase  the 


PIONEERS   OF    LIBERTY.  119 

spirit  of  his  subjects,  and  to  set  up  a  stamp  and  character  of  serv- 
itude on  them,  whereby  they  shall  be  disabled  t<5  do  anything  for 
the  service  of  the  king  and  commonwealth  ?  " 

The  reader  must  look  elsewhere  for  the  details  of  the  trial  and 
death  of  Strafford,  — that  "  bold,  bad  man,"  —  accused  of  design- 
ing, under  the  watchwords  of  Thorough  and  Thorough-out,  to  sub- 
vert and  abolish  the  essential  liberties  of  the  English  nation.  Of 
all  the  scenes  which  Westminster  Hall  has  ever  exhibited  during 
successive  periods,  none  has  been  more  memorable  than  the  trial 
of  the  lord-deputy.  The  dauntless  courage  with  which  Pyra 
advanced,  in  the  name  of  truth  and  justice,  to  the  attack ;  the 
contrary  emotions  excited,  on  the  one  hand,  by  the  sight  of  the 
prisoner  loaded  with  torturing  infirmities,  and,  on  the  other,  by  the 
recollection  of  his  crimes ;  the  display  of  his  heroic  firmness  set 
in  opposition  to  the  proofs  of  an  unsparing  resolution  to  beat  down 
all  resistance  to  his  course;  the  overpowering  eloquence  of  the 
accused,  standing,  though  he  did,  against  a  world  in  arras;  the 
effect  of  his  sudden  glance  on  Pym  himself,  recalling,  as  thsit 
glance  did,  years  of  ancient  friendship  and  intercourse,  so  that  even 
Pyra  for  a  moment  forgot  himself;  the  promises  made  by  the  king 
to  save  the  servant  who  had  imperilled  all  in  the  royal  causes ;  the 
manner  in  which  those  pledges,  like  all  which  Charles  had  ever 
made,  were  violated  under  the  strong  pressure  of  the  serious  emer- 
gency ;  the  clamors  of  the  people  for  the  death  of  the  traitor 
to  their  rights  ;  the  calm  composure  with  which  Strafford  appeared 
on  the  scaffold  and  underwent  his  sentence, —  form  together  a  pic- 
ture full  of  raaterials  for  the  pencil  of  art,  and  instructive  in  the 
highest  degree  alike  to  the  statesman  and  the  moralist. 

Admirably  has  Macaulay  painted  a  companion  portrait:  that 
of  Laud,  whose  name  has  often  occurred  in  these  pages,  and  who 
suffered,  about  this  time,  a  similar  fate  :  — 

"  The  mean  forehead,  the  pinched  features,  the  peering  eyes,  of 
the  prelate,  suit  admirably  with  his  disposition.  They  mark  him 
out  as  a  lower  kind  of  Saint  Dominic,  differing  from  the  fierce  and 
gloomy    enthusiast   who    founded    the    inquisition    as   we    might 


120  PIONEERS    OF    LIBEllTY. 

imagine  the  familiar  imp  of  a  spiteful  witch  to  differ  from  an  arch- 
angel of  darkness.  When  we  read  his  grace's  judgment, —  when 
we  read  the  report  which  he  drew  up  setting  forth  that  he  had 
sent  some  separatists  to  prison,  and  imploring  the  royal  aid 
against  others,  —  we  feel  a  movement  of  indignation.  We  turn  to 
his  diary,  and  we  are  at  once  as  cool  as  contempt  can  make  us. 
There  we  learn  how  his  picture  fell  down,  and  how  fearful  he 
was  lest  the  fall  should  be  an  omen ;  how  he  dreamed  that  the 
Duke  of  Buckingham  came  to  bed  to  him;  that  King  James 
walked  past  him  ;  that  he  saw  Thomas  Flaxney  in  green  garments, 
and  the  Bishop  of  Worcester  with  his  shoulders  wrapped  in  linen. 
In  the  early  part  of  1627,  the  sleep  of  this  great  ornament  of  the 
church  seems  to  have  been  much  disturbed.  On  tlie  fifth  of  Jan- 
uary, he  saw  a  merry  old  man  with  a  wrinkled  countenance, 
named  Grove,  lying  on  the  ground.  On  the  14th  of  the  same 
memorable  mouth,  he  saw  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln  jump  on  a  horse, 
and  ride  away.  A  day  or  two  after  this,  he  dreamed  that  he 
gave  the  king  drink  in  a  silver  cup,  and  that  the  king  refused 
it,  and  called  for  glass.  Then  he  dreamed  that  he  had  turned 
papist ;  of  all  his  dreams  the  only  one,  we  suspect,  which  came 
through  the  gate  of  horn.  But  of  these  visions  our  favorite  is 
that  which,  as  he  has  recorded,  he  enjoyed  on  the  night  of  Friday, 
the  19th  of  February,  1627.  '  I  dreamed,'  says  he,  ♦  that  I  had 
the  scurvy,  and  that  forthwith  all  my  teeth  became  loose.  There 
was  one  especially  in  my  lower  jaw,  which  I  could  scarcely  keep 
in  with  my  finger,  till  I  had  called  for  help.'  Yet  this  was  the 
man  who  claimed  to  have  the  superintendence  of  the  opinions  of  a 
great  nation  !"=^ 

In  the  impeachment  of  this  despicable  man  —  whose  name, 
though  of  late  years  it  has  become  almost  fiishionable  to  canonize 
it,  is  worthy  only  of  the  emphasis  of  scorn  —  Pyni  also  took,  as  is 
well  known,  a  distinguished  part. 

"  My  lords,"  said  he,  "  there  is  an  expression  in  the  Scripture 

*  Macaulay's  Critical  and  Historical  Essays,  i.,  p.  450. 


PIONEERS  OF  LIBERTY.  121 

which  I  will  not  presume  either  to  understand  or  to  interpret ;  yet 
to  a  vulgar  eye  it  seems  to  have  an  aspect  something  suitable  to 
the  person  and  cause  before  you.  It  is  a  description  of  the  evil 
spirits,  wherein  they  are  said  to  be  '  spiritual  wickednesses  in  high 
places.'  Crimes  acted  by  the  spiritual  faculties  of  the  soul  —  the 
will  and  the  understanding  —  exercised  about  spiritual  matters, 
concerning  God's  worship  and  the  salvation  of  man,  seconded  with 
power,  authority,  learning,  and  many  other  advantages,  to  make 
the  party  who  commits  them  very  suitable  to  that  description, — 
' SPIRITUAL  WICKEDNESSES  IN  HIGH  PLACES ! '"  =^  ^  #  " Herein 
your  lordships  may  observe  that  those  who  labor,  in  civil  matters, 
to  set  up  the  king  above  the  laws  of  the  kingdom,  do  yet,  in  eccle- 
siastical matters,  endeavor  to  set  up  themselves  above  the  king." 
^  ^  #  "  You  have  the  king's  loyal  subjects  banished  out  of 
the  kingdom,  not  as  Elimelech,  to  seek  for  bread  in  foreign  coun- 
tries, by  reason  of  the  great  scarcity  which  was  in  Israel,  but 
travelling  abroad  for  the  bread  of  life,  because  they  could  not  have 
it  at  home  by  reason  of  the  spiritual  famine  of  God's  Word, 
caused  by  this  man  and  his  partakers ;  and  by  this  means  you 
have  had  the  trade,  the  manufactory,  the  industry,  of  many  thou- 
sands of  his  majesty's  subjects,  carried  out  of  the  land.  It  is  a 
miserable  abuse  of  the  spiritual  keys  to  shut  up  the  doors  of 
heaven,  and  to  open  the  doors  of  hell ;  to  let  in  profaneness,  igno- 
rance, superstition,  and  error.  I  shall  need  say  no  more.  These 
things  are  evident,  and  abundantly  known  to  all." 

The  hour  of  Laud's  retribution  had  arrived.  He,  before  whom 
an  insulted  nation  had  trembled,  now  felt  the  weight  of  a  people's 
indignation,  and  found  it  terrible.  Reparation  was  required  of 
him  and  others  for  the  sentences  passed  in  the  Star  Chamber, 
especially  on  Burton,  Bastwick,  and  Prynne ;  he  was  fined 
twenty  thousand  pounds,  was  removed  from  the  chancellorship 
of  Oxford,  his  jurisdiction  was  put  into  trust,  and  it  was  enacted 
that  he  should  give  no  presentation  to  benefices  without  the  pre- 
viously-obtained consent  of  the  House.  His  arms  were  removed  ; 
the  rents  of  his  archbishopric  sequestrated  ;  his  house  plundered, 
11 


122  PIONEERS  OF  LIBERTY. 

whilst  for  the  outrage  he  could  obtain  no  restitution ;  his  goods  and 
books  sold,  after  his  papers  had  been  searched,  in  no  very  forbear- 
ing spirit,  by  the  earless  and  now  remorseless  Prynne.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  give  a  detailed  account  of  his  trial  and  sentence.  The  last 
was  what  sentences  passed  in  the  passion  of  a  moment  which  puts 
revenge  within  a  people's  power  are  apt  to  be.  And  it  was  at  last 
forced  upon  the  commons,  mainly  by  the  popular  cry  for  his  blood. 
No  act  which  emanated  from  the  Long  Parliament  is  more  open  to 
censure  than  the  proceedings  against  Laud,  considered  as  a  legal 
sentence.  No  act  was  at  the  time  felt  to  have  been  more  richly 
deserved  by  a  long  and  cold-blooded  course  of  persecution.  Subse- 
quently, Laud,  like  Strafford,  was  beheaded,  and  met  his  death 
with  a  stubborn  fortitude. 

Coincidently  with  these  transactions,  bills  were  introduced  and 
passed  abolishing  the  courts  of  Star  Chamber  and  High  Commis- 
sion, with  other  parts  of  the  despotic  apparatus  of  Laud  and  Straf- 
ford. The  king  was,  with  great  difficulty,  pei-suaded  to  sign  these 
bills.  The  conduct  of  the  monarch  on  this  occasion  revived  the 
question  of  the  root  and  branch  petition.  The  Long  Parliament 
now  began  a  serious  and  most  comprehensive  attack  on  prelacy. 
As  a  vindicator  of  this  course  of  procedure,  Hampden  must  be 
regarded  as  favorable  to  stronger  anti-episcopal  measures  than 
Pym.  Both,  however,  are  described  by  Hyde,  afterwards  Lord 
Clarendon,  as  inviting  to  their  table  at  Westminster  "  those  of 
whose  conversion  they  had  any  hope,"  and,  among  the  rest,  Mr. 
Hyde  himself.  This  clearly  proves  that,  in  Clarendon's  opinion, 
at  least,  there  was  an  agreement  between  the  two  on  the  general 
question  then  agitated.  Yet  Clarendon,  in  another  place,  seems 
to  contradict  himself.  Thus  much  is  certain  :  that  when  the  bill 
came  into  a  committee  of  the  whole  house,  Hyde  was  himself  placed 
in  the  chair,  and  that  he  boasted,  in  the  first  volume  of  his  "  History 
of  the  Rebellion,"  "how  he  had  perplexed  them  very  much;"  how, 
"  when  they  were  in  the  heat  and  passion  of  the  debate,  he  often 
ensnared  them  in  a  question ;"  and  how,  "  after  nearly  twenty 
days  spent  in  that  manner,  they  found  themselves  very  little 


PIONEERS    OF    LIBERTY.  123 

advanced  towards  a  conclusion."  One  of  the  foremost  speakers 
upon  this  root  and  branch  question  was  Sir  Harry  Vane,  jr. ;  one 
of  the  strongest  defenders  of  episcopacy  was  Lord  Falkland.  We 
shall  have  occasion  elsewhere  to  review  the  proceedings  of  the 
Long  Parliament  in  relation  to  prelacy.  It  will  be  sufficient,  at 
present,  to  observe  the  two  resolutions  of  the  commons  which  fol- 
lowed this  debate  :  —  "  That  the  legislative  and  judicial  poM^er  of 
bishops  in  the  House  of  Peers  is  a  great  hindrance  to  the  discharge 
of  their  spiritual  function,  prejudicial  to  the  commonwealth,  and 
fit  to  be  taken  away  by  bill,  and  that  a  bill  be  drawn  up  to  this 
purpose."  March  11,  it  was  resolved  further,  "That  for  bishops 
or  any  other  clergymen  to  be  in  the  commission  of  the  peace,  or  to 
have  any  judicial  power  in  the  Star  Chamber,  or  in  any  civil  court, 
is  a  great  hindrance  to  their  spiritual  function,  and  fit  to  be  taken 
away  by  bill."  And,  not  many  days  after,  it  was  resolved  that 
they  should  not  be  privy-councillors,  or  in  any  temporal  offices. 
This  took  place  in  1640.  Prynne  the  next  year  took  courage  and 
published  his  celebrated  book,  entitled  "  The  Antipathic  of  the 
English  Lordly  Prelacie  both  to  Regall  [Monarchy  and  Civill 
Unity;  or.  An  Historical  Collection  of  the  several  Execrable 
Treasons,  Conspiracies,  Rebellions,  Seditions,  State-schisms,  Con- 
tumacies, Oppressions,  and  Anti-Monarchical  Practices  of  our 
English,  British,  French,  Scottish  and  Irish  Lordly  Prelates, 
against  our  Kings,  Kingdomes,  Laws,  Liberties ;  and  of  the  sev- 
erall  Warres  and  Civill  Dissentions  occasioned  by  them  in  or 
against  our  Realm,  in  Former  and  Later  Ages,  &c.,  &c.  By 
Wm.  Prynne,  late  (and  now  again)  an  utter  Barrister  of  Lin- 
colne's  Inn."  Bastwick  also  signalized  himself  on  the  occasion,  by 
publishing  a  pamphlet  entitled  "  Lord  Bishops  none  of  the  Lord's 
Bishops  :  a  short  Discourse,  1640."  We  will  by  no  means  under- 
take to  justify  all  the  contents  of  these  pamphlets  :  they  both  con- 
tain, however,  many  important  facts.  The  consent  of  the  king 
was  with  difficulty  obtained  to  the  bill  for  abolishing  prelacy,  and 
he  only  yielded  on  the  understanding  that,  by  yielding,  his  queen 


124  PIONEERS    OF    LIBERTY.  * 

should  not  be  molested  in  going  abroad,  a  movement  now  essential 
to  him. 

About  this  time,  the  king  having  determined  to  pay  a  visit  to 
Scotland,  the  parliament,  having  become  extremely  suspicious  of  all 
his  movements,  commissioned  Hampden,  as  part  of  a  deputation,  to 
follow  and  observe  him.  What  intrigues  were  carried  on  by  Charles 
at  this  time  against  the  cause  of  liberty  in  general,  and  against  the 
popular  leaders  in  particular,  are  made  most  apparent  by  the  corre- 
spondence of  Evelyn ;  and  we  must  refer  the  reader,  for  an  account 
of  them,  to  Forster's  able  life  of  John  Pym.  By  means  of  Lady 
Carlisle,  who,  though  about  the  court,  was  in  Pym's  interest,  the 
popular  leaders  were  fully  instructed  in  the  dangers  of  their  posi- 
tion. An  attempt  was  made  to  assassinate  Pym ;  but  the  blow  fell 
upon  another  man,  mistaken  for  the  statesman.  The  Irish  Rebel- 
lion, in  which  the  queen  and  the  king  were  suspected  of  bearing  a 
part,  and  the  occurrence  known  by  the  name  of  the  "  incident," — 
of  which  all  that  has  transpired  is,  that  Montrose  proposed  to  the 
king  a  system  of  assassination,  and  that  Charles  continued  him  in 
his  service  and  confidence,  —  rendered  the  puritan  party  still  more 
suspicious  than  before,  and  induced  them  to  bring  in  the  measure 
to  which  they  attached  the  most  emphatic  importance,  "The  Grand 
Remonstrance."  Some  of  those  who  had  been  advocates  on  the 
side  of  liberty  in  the  commons  were  now  beginning  to  grow  ex- 
hausted and  cold.  The  nation  was  weary  of  tumult  and  conten- 
tion. Charles'  most  pernicious  favorites  had  been  extirpated,  and 
a  feeling  of  sympathy  was  arising  for  the  misfortunes  of  the  king 
himself.  But  the  multitude  was,  as  usual,  very  imperfectly 
informed  on  the  subject,  and  did  not  see  through  the  intrigues  of 
the  court ;  though,  had  Charles'  wisdom  been  equal  to  the  demands 
of  his  position,  he  might  at  this  time  have  re-settled  himself  upon 
his  throne.  His  wife's  folly,  however,  and  his  own  fatuity, 
destroyed  him,  and  saved  the  liberties  of  his  country.  In  this 
divided  state  of  opinions,  it  was  a  great  question  whether  the 
Remonstrance  would  pass.  The  debate  was  long  and  angry.  The 
"  Grand  Remonstrance"  was  carried  by  a  majority  of  nine.     Car- 


PIONEERS    OF    LIBERTY.  125 

lyle  calls  the  Irish  Rebellion,  which  gave  rise  to  it,  "  An  Irish 
Catholic  imitation  of  the  late  Scotch  Presbyterian  achievements  in 
the  way  of  religious  liberty."  =^  Many  of  the  puritan  leaders,  and 
Cromwell  among  them,  are  said  to  have  declared  their  resolution, 
had  the  Remonstrance  been  lost,  to  leave  the  kingdom.  Such  a 
statement,  perhaps,  constitutes  the  only  ground  for  the  tradition 
that  Hampden  and  Cromwell  had,  at  a  former  period,  actually 
prepared  to  embark,  and  had  been  stopped  by  the  king's  order. 

Roused  by  this  "Grand  Remonstrance,"  Charles  now  performed 
the  crowning  act  of  his  own  infatuation.  He  resolved  to  impeach 
the  leading  members  of  the  two  houses  of  high  treason.  This  he 
did,  not  by  the  ordinary  legal  processes,  but  by  sending  the  attor- 
ney-general to  the  House  of  Lords  to  accuse  them  in  the  king's 
name.  The  lords  instantly  sent  a  message  to  the  commons,  stat- 
ing to  them  the  fact,  and  informing  them  that  pursuivants  were 
already  employed  in  sealing  the  trunks  and  papers  of  the  accused 
members.  Immediately  the  commons  sent  a  speaker's  warrant  to 
remove  the  seals.  In  the  mean  time  the  sergeant-at-arms  demanded, 
by  a  message  from  the  king  to  the  speaker,  Pyra,  Hampden,  Hollis, 
Hazlerigg  and  Strode.  The  house  replied  that  the  matter  was  too 
serious  to  be  decided  without  consideration,  but  that  the  accused 
members  would  be  ready  to  answer  any  legal  charge.  Pym  and 
Hampden  were  then  present  in  the  house.  The  next  morning, 
amidst  the  intense  silence  which  frequently  accompanies  great 
events,  the  five  members  rose  in  their  places,  each  to  refute  in  his 
turn  the  charges  which  the  king's  attorney-general  had  brought 
against  them.  The  house  had  retired  for  its  usual  dinner-interval, 
and  resumed  its  sitting,  when,  by  means  of  a  letter  from  Lady 
Carlisle,  who  had  overheard  in  the  palace  the  queen's  t  premature 

*  Carlyle's  Cromwell,  vol.  i.,  p.  166. 

t  The  queen  had  spirited  the  king  to  this  attack.  When  Charles  left  her  to 
seize  the  members,  he  said  to  his  wife,  "  If  you  find  one  hour  elapse  without 
hearing  ill  news  from  me,  you  will  see  me,  when  I  return,  the  master  of  my 
kingdom."  The  queen  waited,  her  eyes  fixed  on  her  watch.  At  last  she  said 
to  Lady  Carlisle,  "  Rejoice  with  me,  for  at  this  hour  the  king  is,  as  I  have  rea- 
son to  hope,  master  of  his  realm ;  for  Pym  and  his  confederates  are  arrested 
11# 


126  PIONEERS    OF    LIBERTY. 

triumph  at  the  king's  act,  Pym  was  made  aware  that  the  king  was 
coming  down  to  the  house,  and  he  lost  no  time  in  proclaiming  it  to 
his  fellow-members.  As  it  was  felt  that  bloodshed  would  be  the 
inevitable  consequence  if  Charles  seized  them  in  the  house,  they 
were  requested  to  withdraw.  The  commons  then,  arming  them- 
selves with  the  sternest  resolution,  awaited,  in  the  silence  of  a 
gathering  storm,  their  royal  visitor. 

The  scene  which  followed,  standing  as  it  did  in  immediate  con- 
nection with  the  action  taken  by  the  five  members  in  the  war 
against  bishops,  and  the  calling  in  of  the  Scots  for  the  promotion 
of  uniformity,  is  too  characteristic  of  the  period  to  be  omitted.  The 
door  of  the  house  was  thrown  violently  open  :  this  marked  the 
arrival  of  the  king,  with  his  guard,  his  pensioners,  and  two  or  three 
hundred  soldiers.  Charles  commanded  the  soldiers  to  remain,  and 
sent  word  that  he  was  at  the  door.  The  speaker  was  ordered  by 
the  house  to  sit  still,  with  his  mace  lying  before  him.  The  king, 
in  a  state  of  high  excitement,  advanced  from  his  retainers,  check- 
ing their  eagerness  by  commanding  them  on  their  lives  not  to 
enter.  Only  his  nephew,  the  prince  palatine,  accompanied  him  ; 
the  Earl  of  Roxburgh  standing  by  the  door.  Charles  entered 
uncovered;  the  members  of  the  house  stood  up  uncovered  to 
receive  him.  The  speaker  advanced  to  meet  him  :  the  king  walked 
into  his  j^lace,  and  stood  upon  the  step.  For  some  considerable 
time  he  stood  looking  inquiringly  around  in  search  of  the  five 
members.  At  length  he  spoke,  stammering  more  than  usual,  in 
the  agitation  of  such  a  moment,  and  declared,  "  I  will  not  break 
your  privileges,  but  treason  has  no  privilege.  I  come  for  those 
five  gentlemen,  for  I  expected  obedience  yesterday,  and  not  an 
answer."  The  king  called  Mr.  Pym  and  Mr.  Hollis  by  name,  — 
there  was  no  reply.  In  all  that  assembly  there  was  probably  not 
one  who  sympathized  with  the  royal  madness  of  that  moment. 
The  king  asked  the  speaker  if  the  five  members  were  in  the  house, 

before  now."  Lady  Carlisle  gave  the  alarm.  Something  had  detained  the 
king,  and  the  news  reached  the  members  in  time  for  their  escape.  Henrietta 
Maria  confessed  this  indiscretion  to  her  husband,  who  forgave  her. 


PIONEERS   OF   LIBERTY.  127 

or  where  they  were  ?  Lenthall  admirably  said  that  he  was  only 
the  servant  of  the  house,  and  could  neither  see  nor  hear  but  by  its 
order.  The  king  replied,  "  I  think  my  own  eyes  are  as  good  as 
yours  ;  the  birds  are  flown  ;  but  I  expect,  as  soon  as  they  come  to 
the  house,  you  will  send  them  to  me ;  otherwise  I  must  take  my 
own  course  to  find  them."  Amidst  mutterings,  loud  enough  to 
reach  the  royal  ears,  of  "  Privilege,  privilege ! "  the  king  departed; 
and  his  armed  retainers,  who  had  stood  at  the  door  eagerly  expect- 
ing the  moment  of  their  entrance,  received  him  on  his  return  with 
disappointment.  There  was  no  need  for  their  cocked  pistols  that 
day,  but  the  occasion  was  soon  coming  which  should  give  them 
employment  enough.^ 

The  members  sought  refuge  in  the  city.  The  king  pursued 
them.  The  city  defended  and  honored  them.  Four  thousand 
men  from  Buckingham  came  up  to  the  defence  of  Hampden.  Pym 
was  also  strongly  guarded.  The  king  vainly  endeavored  to  patch 
the  rent  his  rash  hand  had  made.  The  house  ordered  its  accused 
members  to  attend  in  their  places  on  the  11th  January.  They 
sailed  up  the  Thames  in  gorgeous  and  magnificent  procession,  with 
all  the  defences  of  war,  and  the  king  retreated  to  Hampton  Court. 
Pym  and  Hampden  had  now  received  from  Charles'  hostile  hands 
an  enlarged  influence  and  a  mightier  impulse.  The  civil  war  began. 
Hampden  summoned  his  Buckinghamshire  retainers  to  form  a  mili- 
tia, and  was  cheerfully  obeyed.  His  purse  was  open  at  the  same 
time  to  supply  the  wants  of  the  parliament,  and  he  received  com- 
mission as  a  colonel.  His  subscription  was  two  thousand  pounds. 
His  regiment  was  considered  the  best  infantry  among  the  parlia- 
mentary forces.  His  livery  was  green  ;  his  banner  bore  his  own 
family  motto,  on  this  occasion  most  appropriate,  ^^Vestigia  nulla 
retrorsum."  Lord  Clarendon,  in  describing  Hampden's  character, 
expresses  a  sentiment  which  is  a  true  translation  of  this  phrase, 
"  When  he  drew  the  sword,  he  threw  away  the  scabbard."  His 
personal  courage  was  conspicuous  ;  it  even  approached  to  the  rash 

*  A  graphic  account  of  this  celebrated  scene,  from  the  pen  of  an  eye-witness, 
is  given  in  the  Verney  papers,  recently  published  by  the  Camden  Society. 


128  PIONEERS    OF    LIBERTY. 

imperilling  of  his  life.    The  following  lines  are  those  of  "  a  friend 
and  fellow-soldier : " 


I  have  seen 


Him  in  the  front  of 's  regiment  in  green. 
When  death  about  him  did  in  ambush  lye. 
And  whizzing  shot-like  showres  of  arrowes  flye. 
Waving  his  conquering  Steele,  as  if  that  he 
From  Mars  had  got  the  sole  monopolie 
Of  never-failing  courage." 

These  are  not  the  pages  in  which  to  discuss  the  question  of  war 
in  the  general,  or  of  the  great  civil  war  in  particular.  It  is  clear, 
however,  that  those  who  in  this  contest  appealed  to  arms  against 
the  king  were  actuated  by  no  sinister  or  unworthy  motives.  The 
war  was  distinctly  a  war  for  religion.  It  was  a  war  for  protest- 
antism against  Romanism ;  for  puritanism  against  prelacy ;  but 
it  was  not,  in  its  widest  sense,  a  war  for  perfect  religious  liberty. 
Pym  and  Hampden  appear  to  have  been  both  attached  to  the  forms 
and  ceremonial  of  the  Church  of  England,  so  far  as  that  was  con- 
sistent with  Pym's  deploring  and  Hampden's  denouncing  its  hier- 
archy. Both  felt  that  the  liberty  of  the  person  and  that  of  the 
religion  were  inseparably  associated ;  at  least,  they  felt  this  up  to 
a  certain  point.  In  resisting  the  encroachments  of  Charles,  they 
felt  that  they  were  opposing  one,  whose  word,  Jon  what  subject 
soever  it  had  been  pledged,  was  as  unstable  as  a  quicksand  ;  who 
had  bullied  and  then  crouched  down  ;  had  promised  and  recalled 
his  promise ;  had  put  aside  the  most  solemn  charters  of  the  land  ; 
had  even  trampled  upon  those  which  himself  had  conceded ;  and 
that  from  him  nothing  could  be  hoped,  until,  by  his  committing 
himself  to  their  hands,  he  should  give  some  security  that  he  held 
good  faith  towards  them.  In  thus  resisting  the  king,  the  patriot 
party  felt  that  they  were  fighting  for  their  altars,  their  hearths, 
their  liberties,  and  the  decencies  of  a  public  morality  outraged  by 
the  license  of  the  times.  Many  of  the  contrasts  between  the  two 
armies  were  uncommonly  striking.      It  was  not  only  that  the 


PIONEERS   OF    LIBERTY. 


129 


flowing  locks  of  ibe  cavalier,  wlio  wore  his  love-token  suspended 
round  his  neck,  were  most  distinguishable  from  the  close-cropped 
hair  of  the  Roundhead,  whose  only  conspicuous  ornament  was  his 
military  belt.  It  was  not  only  that  the  uncouth  psalms  sung  on 
the  one  side  to  the  ancient  tunes  of  "  Old  Windsor,"  or  "  Babylon 
Streams,"  formed  a  singular  contrast  to  the  songs  which,  shouted 
forth  by  some  drunken  cavalier,  formed  a  mingled  compound  of 
wit,  scandal,  and  licentiousness.  But  it  was  that,  though  the 
full  development  had  not  yet  taken  place,  the  leaders  of  the  par- 
liament army  possessed  the  dignity,  and  some  of  them  the  enthu- 
siasm, of  martyrs;  whilst  on  the  other  side,  with  some  distin- 
guished exceptions,  the  royalist  leaders  were  little  better  than 
remorseless  and  revengeful  rakes.  The  parliament  army  was 
more  distinguished  by  dogmatic  pertinacity  of  opinion  than  it  was 
by  vice,  whilst  the  king's  army  suspected  virtue  itself  to  be  dis- 
loyal. The  Roundheads  knew,  almost  to  a  man,  the  nature  and 
dignity  of  their  cause,  and  were  prepared  to  argue  as  well  as  to 
fight  for  it ;  their  adversaries,  for  the  most  part,  cared  more  for 
the  name  of  loyalty  than  for  any  truth  embodied  in  it.  Some  of 
them  were  ignorant  of  the  merit  of  the  question  for  which  they 
fought ;  others  of  them  would  have  disdained  to  defend  the  con- 
duct of  the  king ;  and  the  mass  of  their  army  was  a  rabble  rout, 
the  most  debauched,  the  most  reckless,  the  most  irreligious,  that 
ever  trailed  a  pike  or  fired  a  matchlock. 

In  levying  his  army,  Charles  was  compelled  to  forego  all  atten- 
tion to  religious  difierences.  The  following  letter,  written  to  the 
Earl  of  Newcastle,  has  perhaps,  an  eye  towards  Roman  Catho- 
lics : 

"New  Castel, — This  is  to  tell  you  that  this  rebellion  is  growen 
to  that  height,  that  I  must  not  look  what  opinion  men  ar  who 
at  this  time  ar  willing  and  able  to  serve  me.  Therefore,  I  doe  not 
only  permitt,  but  command  you  to  make  use  of  all  my  loving  sub- 
jects'  services,  without   examining   ther  contienses    (more   than 


130  PIONEERS    OF    LIBERTY. 

there  loyalty  to  me)  as  you  shall  fynde  most  to  conduce  to  the 

uphoulding  of  my  just  royall  power.     So  I  rest, 

"  Your  most  assured  faithfull  frend, 

"  Charles  R.=^ 
"  Skretvsbury,  23  Sep.  1642." 

The  command  of  the  army  of  the  parliament  was,  in  the  first 
instance,  intrusted  to  the  Earl  of  Essex.  He  had  practised  mili- 
tary tactics  in  the  war  of  the  palatinate,  and  was  deeply  earnest  in 
the  cause  of  freedom ;  but  he  possessed  the  fatal  fault  of  hesitating 
in  a  crisis,  and  he  knew  not  how  to  follow  up  his  own  advantages. 
Hampden  was  placed  near  him,  on  the  principle  of  compensation, 
that  he  might  add  energy  to  his  commander's  prudence.  Essex, 
though  in  the  first  instance  satisfied  that  war  with  the  king  was  a 
necessary  evil,  became,  as  the  conflict  proceeded,  uncertain  whether 
great  triumphs  on  his  part  would  be  altogether  salutary  to  the 
parliament  itself;  and  this  fear  withheld  him  from  striking  when 
the  blow  might  have  been  decisive.  "  It  was  believed,"  says  Lucy 
Hutchinson,  in  her  Memoirs  of  her  Husband,  Colonel  Hutchinson, 
"  that  he  —  Essex — himself,  with  his  commanders,  rather  endeav- 
ored to  become  arbiters  of  war  and  peace  than  conquerors  for  the 
parliament :  for  it  was  known  that  he  had  given  out  such  expres- 
sions." 

A  civil  war  is  a  peculiar  and  a  fearful  thing !  The  greatest 
captain  of  our  own  day  has  said  that,  rather  than  witness  it  at 
home,  he  would  freely  lay  down  his  own  life.  Such  a  war  does 
not,  like  other  wars,  concentrate  itself  on  a  few  principal  points. 
It  is  an  eruptive  disease  of  singular  malignity,  which  breaks  out 
irregularly,  and  often  simultaneously,  on  all  parts  of  the  body 
politic.  Discord,  revenge,  want,  rapine,  murder,  sufiering,  are  of 
course  its  attendants ;  but,  besides  these,  loyalty  is  made  a  reproach 
on  the  one  hand,  and  liberty  is  ridiculed  as  an  empty  name  on  the 
other.  The  most  sacred  things  are  violated,  and  placed  in  juxta- 
position with  the  most  odious.     The  closest  ties  are  severed  and 

♦  Ellis'  Letters. 


PIONEERS    OF    LIBERTY.  131 

dislocated ;  families  are  ranged  against  each  other ;  the  chiefest 
friends  become  enemies.  The  soldier  is  often  compelled  to  advance 
against  the  homesteads  of  his  own  kindred.  The  exercises  of 
industry  and  piety  are  disturbed  by  the  shouts  of  massacre,  or  the 
roaring  of  musketry.  "  Even  things  inanimate,  which  appeal  to 
remembrance  only,  crowd  in,  with  their  numberless  associations, 
to  tell  how  unnatural  a  state  of  man  is  civil  war.  The  village 
street  barricaded ;  the  house  deserted  by  all  its  social  charities, 
perhaps  occupied  as  the  stronghold  of  a  foe ;  the  church,  where  lie 
our  parents'  bones,  become  a  battery  for  cannon,  a  hospital  for  the 
wounded,  a  stable  for  horses,  or  a  keep  for  captives ;  the  accus- 
tomed paths  of  our  early  youth  beset  with  open  menace  or  hidden 
danger ;  its  fields  made  foul  with  carnage ;  and  the  imprecations 
of  furious  hate,  or  the  supplications  of  mortal  agony,  coming  to  us 
in  our  own  language,  haply  in  the  very  dialect  of  our  peculiar 
province ;  —  these  are  among  the  familiar  and  frequent  griefs  of 
civil  war."  =* 

As  the  contest  proceeded,  Hampden  was  impatient  of  the  delays 
which  only  protracted  the  nation's  suflferings,  and  earnestly  desired 
some  more  determinate  measures  on  the  part  of  the  parliament. 
But  his  remonstrances  with  Essex  were  vain.  Hampden  had 
urged  him  to  defend  two  regiments  peculiarly  exposed  to  attack. 
His  advice  was  unheeded,  and  Prince  Rupert  fell  upon  them,  and 
slew  them  to  a  man.  Anticipating  that  Rupert  was  aiming  to 
turn  the  eastern  flank  of  the  army,  and  aware  that  Chiselhamp- 
ton  Bridge  was  the  only  point  by  which  he  could  return  to  his 
army,  posted  at  Oxford,  Hampden  felt  it  to  be  his  duty  to  attempt 
to  intercept  him,  and  drew  up  his  infantry  on  Chalgrave-field,  a 
plain  where  he  had  often  been  accustomed  to  exercise  his  militia. 
In  leading  his  men  to  the  charge,  two  carbine  balls  pierced  his 
shoulder,  and,  breaking  his  arm,  entered  his  body.  Noble,  how- 
ever, relates  that  "a  great  man  assured  him  that  Hampden's 
death- wound  proceeded  from  the  breaking  of  an  overcharged  pistol, 

*  Nugent's  Memoirs  of  Hampden. 


132  PIONEERS   OP    LIBERTY. 

given  him  by  his  son-in-law,  Sir  K.  Pje,  to  whom,  when  he  saw 
him  on  his  death-bed,  he  said:  "Ah,  E-obin,  your  unhappy  present 
has  been  my  ruin  ! "  ^     But  this  is  a  mere  figment. 

"It  is  a  tradition  that  he  was  seen,"  after  his  wound,  "first 
moving  towards  the  house  of  his  father-in-law  at  Pyrton.  There 
he  had  in  youth  married  the  first  wife  of  his  love,t  and  thither  he 
would  have  gone  to  die.  But  Rupert's  cavalry  covered  the  plain 
between.  Turning  his  horse,  therefore,  he  rode  back  across  the 
grounds  of  Hazelrig,  in  his  way  to  Thame.  At  the  brook  which 
divides  the  parishes  he  paused  a  while,  but,  it  being  impossible  for 
him,  in  his  wounded  state,  to  remount,  if  he  had  alighted  to  turn 
his  horse  over,  he  suddenly  summoned  his  strength,  clapped  spurs, 
and  cleared  the  leap.  In  great  pain,  and  almost  fainting,  he  reached 
Thame,  and  was  conducted  to  the  house  of  one  Ezekiel  Browne, 
where,  his  wounds  being  dressed,  the  surgeons  would  for  a  while 
have  given  him  hopes  of  life ;  but  he  felt  that  his  hurt  was  mortal. 
He  was  attended  by  Dr.  Giles,  the  rector  of  Chimnor,  and  by  Dr. 
Spurstowe,  an  independent  minister,  the  chaplain  of  his  regi- 
ment."! 

It  appears  that  Hampden's  death  was  attributable  to  a  deserter, 
who  gave  Bupert  information,  and  suggested  the  attack  which 
ended  on  Chalgrave-field,  and  that  this  man  pointed  out  to  the 
marksmen  the  difierent  commanders,  crying,  "  That 's  Hampden, 
that's  Gunter,  that 's  Luke."  Hampden's  dying  breath,  like  Nel- 
son's on  a  similar  occasion,  directed  the  movements  which  he  felt 
to  be  important  for  the  security  of  his  army  and  the  vigorous  con- 
duct of  the  war.  During  six  days,  he  suffered  the  most  agonizing 
pain.  As  his  dissolution  drew  near,  he  received  the  sacrament  of 
the  Lord's  Supper,  avowing  "that  though  he  could  not  away 
with  the  governance  of  the  church  by  bishops,  and  did  utterly 

*  Noble's  Cromwell. 

t  Hampden  had  married  a  second  time,  about  the  period  of  his  removal  from 
his  ancestral  mansion.  His  lady  long  survived  him,  and  lived  to  an  advanced 
age. 

%  Nugent's  Life  of  Hampden. 


PIONEERS    Oi'    LIBERTY.  133 

abominate  the  scandalous  life  of  some  clergjanen,  he  thought  its 
doctrines  in  the  greater  part  primitive  and  conformable  to  God's 
Word,  as  in  Holy  Scripture  revealed."  Before  his  death  he 
uttered  a  prayer  in  the  highest  degree  affecting  and  sublime.  "  0 
Lord  God  of  hosts,"  said  he,  "  great  is  thy  mercy,  just  and  holy  are 
thy  dealings  unto  us  sinful  men.  Save  me,  0  Lord,  if  it  be  thy 
good  will,  from  the  jaws  of  death.  Pardon  my  manifold  trans- 
gressions. 0  Lord,  save  my  bleeding  country.  Have  these  realm? 
in  thy  special  keeping.  Confound  and  level  in  the  dust  those  who 
would  rob  the  people  of  their  liberty  and  lawful  prerogative.  Let 
the  king  see  his  error,  and  turn  the  hearts  of  his  wicked  counsellors 
from  the  malice  and  wickedness  of  their  designs.  Lord  Jesus, 
receive  my  soul ! "  He  then  mournfully  uttered,  "  0  Lord,  save 
my  country.  0  Lord,  be  merciful  .  .  ."  And  here  his 
speech  failed  him.  He  fell  back  in  the  bed,  and  expired.  Hamp- 
den was  buried  in  the  manor  which  bears  his  name,  and  within  the 
beautiful  church  we  have  already  described. 


HAMPDEN    CHURCH,   THE    PtuVCK    OF   HAMPDEN'S    INTERMEKT. 

The  body  was  followed  to  the  grave  by  many  of  his  troops, — 
their  arms  reversed,  their  heads    ncovered.     Tliey  are  related  to 
12 


134  PIONEERS  OF  LIBERTY. 

have  sung  the  ninetieth  Psalm  as  they  went,  and  the  forty-third 
as  they  returned.     Some  verses  of  the  former  run  thus  : 

"  Thou  guidest  man  through  grief  and  pain 
to  dust,  and  clay,  and  then  ; 
And  then  thou  sayst ;  againe  return 
•  againe,  ye  sonnes  of  men. 

The  lasting  of  a  thousand  yeeres 

■what  is  it  in  thy  sight : 
As  yesterday  it  doth  appeave 
or  as  a  watch  by  night. 

**  So  soone  as  thou  doest  scatter  them 

then  is  their  life  and  trade, 
All  as  a  sleepe  and  like  the  grasse 

whose  beauty  soone  doth  fade, 
Which  in  the  morning  shines  full  bright,  , 

but  fadeth  by  and  by  : 
And  is  cut  downe  ere  it  be  night 

all  withered,  dead  and  dry." 

Not  less  appropriate  were  the  lines  sung  by  the  mourners  on 
their  return : 

"  Judge  and  avenge  my  cause,  0  Lord, 

from  them  that  evill  be. 
From  wicked  and  deceitful  men, 

0  Lord  deliver  me. 
For  of  my  strength  thou  art  the  God, 

why  put'st  thou  me  thee  fro  : 
And  why  walk  I  so  heauily 

oppressed  with  my  foe. 


Why  art  thou  then  so  sad,  my  soule, 
and  fretst  thus  in  my  brest : 

Still  trust  in  God  ;  for  him  to  prayse 
I  hold  it  always  best. 

By  him  I  haue  deliverance 

against  all  paine  and  griefe  : 


PIONEERS   OF    LIBERTY.  135 

He  is  my  God  which  doth  alwayes      « 
at  nede  send  me  reliefe. ' '  * 

Hampden's  death,  occurring  as  it  did  at  so  critical  a  point  of 
the  nation's  history,  spread  dismay  among  the  numerous  party  to 
which  he  had  belonged.  "  The  loss  of  Colonel  Hampden,"  said 
the  Weekly  Intelligencer,  one  of  the  journals  of  the  period, 
"  goeth  near  the  heart  of  every  man  that  loves  the  good  of  his 
king  and  country,  and  makes  some  conceive  little  content  to  be  at 
the  army,  now  that  he  is  gone.  The  memory  of  this  deceased 
colonel  is  such,  that  in  no  age  to  come  but  it  will  more  and  more 
be  had  in  honor  and  esteem ;  a  man  so  religious,  and  of  that  pru- 
dence, judgment,  temper,  valor  and  integrity,  that  he  hath  left 
few  his  like  behind." 

"  He  had  indeed  left  none  his  like  behind  him.  There  still 
remained,  indeed,  in  his  party,  many  acute  intellects,  many 
eloquent  tongues,  many  brave  and  honest  hearts.  There  still 
remained  a  rugged  and  clownish  soldier,  whose  talents,  discerned 
aright  by  only  one  penetrating  eye,  were  equal  to  all  the  highest 
duties  of  the  soldier  and  the  prince.  But  in  Hampden,  and  in 
Hampden  alone,  were  united  all  the  qualities  which,  at  such  a 
crisis,  were  necessary  to  save  the  state ;  —  the  valor  and  energy 
of  Cromwell,  the  discernment  and  eloquence  of  Vane,  the  human- 
ity and  moderation  of  Manchester,  the  stern  integrity  of  Hale,  the 
ardent  public  spirit  of  Sydney.  Others  might  possess  the  quali- 
ties which  were  necessary  to  save  the  popular  party  in  the  crisis 
of  danger :  he  alone  had  both  the  power  and  the  inclination  to 
restrain  its  excesses  in  the  hour  of  triumph.  Others  could  con- 
quer; he  alone  could  reconcile."! 

Some  few  years  ago,  with  the  view  of  determining  where  the 
remains  of  Hampden  were  actually  buried,  an  exhumation  was 
made  of  the  body  supposed  to  be  his,  from  the  chancel  of  the  little 
church  at  Hampden.  It  was  found  in  a  state  of  complete  preser- 
vation, wrapped  in  cere-cloth,  and  some  who  were  present  at  the 

*  Sternhold  and  Hopkins.  f  Macaulay's  Essays,  vol.  i.,  p.  489. 


136  -  PIONEERS    OF    LIBERTY. 

disinterment,  which  was  made  in  the  presence  of  the  late  Lord 
Nugent,  and  the  present  Lord  Denman,  thought  they  could  dis- 
tinctly trace  the  likeness  of  the  features  to  the  best  existing 
portraits.  But,  when  interrogated,  the  other  day,  on  the  subject, 
the  sexton  averred,  though  he  very  attentively  examined  the  dead 
body,  he  could  not  find  any  trace  of  the  wound  by  which  the  great 
patriot  was  reported  to  have  died,  and  expressed  a  distinct  convic- 
tion that  the  body  was  not  that  of  John  Hampden. 

^Yorn  out  by  his  superhuman  exertions,  Pym,  commonly  nick- 
named "  King  Pym,"  six  months  after  followed  his  distinguished 
friend  to  the  tomb.  Though  just  appointed  by  the  parliament  to 
the  distinguished  office  of  lieutenant  of  the  ordnance,  he  never 
lived  to  fulfil  its  duties.  It  is  said  that,  whilst  on  his  death-bed,  a 
band  of  rioters,  provoked  by  the  sufferings  of  the  times,  beset  the 
House  of  Commons  with  a  petition  for  peace,  crying  out,  fur  two 
hours,  "  Give  us  the  traitor  Pym,  that  we  may  tear  him  in 
pieces !  "  and  were  only  dispersed  by  a  troop  of  horse.  He  died  at 
Derby  House,  in  great  calmness  of  spirit,  declaring  that  it  was 
"  an  indifferent  thing  to  him  whether  he  lived  or  died,"  and  that, 
"  if  his  life  and  death  were  put  into  a  balance,  he  would  not  wil- 
lingly cast  in  one  drachm  to  turn  the  balance  either  way."  With 
his  last  breath  he  prayed  with  energy  for  the  king  and  the  public 
weal,  and  having  just  recovered  from  a  fainting  fit,  told  his 
friends  "  he  had  looked  death  in  the  face,  and  knew,  and  there- 
fore feared  not,  the  worst  it  could  do,"  and  that  "  his  heart  was 
filled  with  more  comfort  and  joy  than  he  was  able  to  utter."  He 
died  whilst  a  minister  was  offering  prayer  by  his  bedside.  He 
was  buried  with  great  "  pomp  and  circumstance  "  in  Westminster 
Abbey,  his  body  being  borne  to  the  grave  by  the  ten  principal 
gentlemen  of  the  House  of  Commons,  attended  by  both  houses 
clad  in  mourning,  by  the  assembly  of  divines  just  met,  and  by 
other  gentlemen  of  rank.  We  have  before  us  the  sermon 
preached  on  this  memorable  occasion,  by  Mr.  Marshall,  from  the 
text,  "  Woe  is  me,  for  the  good  man  is  perished  out  of  the  earth." 
The  following  is  an  extract  from  its  close.     Besides  exhibiting  a 


PIONEERS    OF    LIBERTY.  137 

portrait  of  tlie  man,  it  may  be  regarded  as  an  exemplification  of 
the  fearlessness  with  which  the  godly  preachers  of  that  day  were 
accustomed  to  address  even  their  most  distinguished  auditors  : 

"  And  certainly,  if  God  sends  us  to  the  pismire,  to  consider  her 
waies,  and  thereby  to  learne  wisdome,  it  can  be  no  disparagement 
to  any  of  you  to  consider  his  worth,  and  thereby  to  grow  better  ;  I 
shall,  therefore,  make  bold  to  propound  him  as  Bishop  Montacute 
did  Master  Perkins  in  his  funerall  sermon,  to  be  the  man  that 
taught  England  to  serve  God,  and  ministers  to  preach  Jesus 
Christ ;  so  Master  John  Pym  to  be  the  man  whose  example  may 
teach  all  our  nobles  and  gentlemen  to  be  good  Christians,  good 
patriots,  good  parliament  men.  You  all  knew  him  well,  and 
knew  — 

"  That  he  was  not  a  man,  who  when  he  was  called  to  the  pub- 
like service  of  his  countrey,  lay  here  to  satisfie  his  lusts,  spending 
his  time  in  riot  and  wantonnesse,  in  gaming,  drinking,  whoring,  &c. 
Take  heed  none  of  you  be  such. 

"  He  was  not  a  man  who  proved  a  traitour  to  God  and  his 
countrey,  atid  the  cause  of  religion,  which  he  had  solemnly  pro- 
tested to  maintaine.     Take  heed  none  of  you  be  such. 

"  Hee  was  not  a  man  who  (though  hee  appeared  often  in  the 
parliament  house,  yet)  neither  promoted  good  causes  himselfe, 
nor  willingly  permitted  others  to  do  it.  Take  heed  there  be  none 
such  among  you. 

"  He  was  not  a  man  who  owned  the  good  cause  so  long  as  it  was 
like  to  thrive,  and  then  tackt  about  when  it  seemed  to  decline ; 
resolved  to  secure  himselfe,  whatever  became  of  the  publike.  Be- 
ware none  of  you  be  such. 

"  He  was  not  a  man  who  would  feed  himselfe,  or  feather  his 
own  nest,  or  provide  for  his  family  or  friends  out  of  the  publike 
stocke,  or  treasure  of  the  kingdome.  Take  heed  none  of  you  be 
such. 

"  He  was  not  a  man  who  would  favor  the  cause  of  his  friend,  or 
presse  too  heavily  against  his  enemy ;  he  was  no  respecter  of  per- 
sons in  any  cause  or  judgment.     Take  heed  none  of  you  doe  so. 
12* 


138  PIONEERS   OP    LIBERTY, 

"  He  was  not  a  man  who  would  consider  how  far  any  publike 
service  would  stand  with  his  own  private  designes,  and  promote 
the  one  no  further  than  the  other  could  be  driven  on  with  it. 
Beware  this  be  none  of  your  condition. 

"  He  was  not  a  man  who  for  maintaining  or  propagating  any 
private  opinion,  or  way  of  his  owne,  would  hazard  the  publike 
safety.     Take  heed  none  of  you  be  such. 

"  He  was  not  a  man  who  feared  to  promote  the  reformation  of 
religion,  lest  himselfe  should  be  brought  under  the  yoke  of  it. 
Take  heed  that  none  of  you  doe  so. 

"Not  a  man  living  (I  believe)  could  justly  taxe  hhn  for  any 
of  these  ;  God  grant  none  of  you  may  be  found  guilty  of  any  one 
of  them  in  the  day  of  your  account. 

"  But  instead  of  these  things  he  was  the  holy  man,  the  good 
man,  adorned  with  that  integrity,  constancy,  and  unweariablenesse 
in  doing  good,  which  I  before  told  you  of.  Goe,  and  doe  likewise ; 
get  such  an  upright  heart  to  Grod ;  lay  out  yourselves  wholly  in 
the  publike  cause ;  put  both  your  hands  to  this  worke,  and  the 
smaller  your  number  is,  be  the  more  diligent,  and  fall  the  closer  to 
it ;  set  selfe  and  selfe  respects  aside ;  drive  no  designes  of  your 
owne;  count  it  reward  enough,  to  spend 'and  be  spent  in  this 
cause  \  esteeme  the  worke  more  worth  than  all  your  lives ;  imitate 
him  in  these  things  ;  so  might  you  make  him,  as  another  Sampson, 
more  advantageous  to  the  cause  of  God  in  his  death,  than  ever  he 
was  in  his  whole  life."  ^ 

Baxter,  in  the  earlier  editions  of  the  "  Saint's  Rest,"  is  well 
known  to  have  inserted  a  passage,  which,  in  the  copies  published 
after  the  restoration,  was  unhappily  and  disgracefully  expunged  to 
please  Dr.  Jane,  and  to  obtain  a  license  for  his  book :  "  I  think, 
Christian,  this  will  be  a  more  honorable  assembly  than  you  ever 

*  •'  fiPJlKSiJlJ.  The  Church's  Lamentation  for  the  Good  Man  his  Losso, 
delivered  in  a  Sermon  to  the  Right  Honorable  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament, 
and  the  Reverend  Assembly  of  Divines,  &c.,  by  Stephen  Marshall,  B.D.,  1G44." 
The  Sermon  is  prefixed  by  "  a  Portrait  of  John  Pym,  Esq.,  late  Burges  for 
Tavistooke." 


PIONEERS    OF    LIBERTY* 


139 


here  beheld ;  and  a  more  happy  society  than  you  were  ever  of 
before.  Surely  Brook  and  Pini,  and  Hamden,  and  White,  &c., 
are  now  members  of  a  more  knowing,  unerring,  well-ordered,  right 
ayming,  self-denying,  unanimous,  honorable,  triumphant  senate, 
than  this  from  whence  they  were  taken  is,  or  ever  parliament  will 
be.  It  is  better  to  be  a  doorkeeper  to  that  assembly,  whither  I 
wish  we  are  translated,  than  to  have  continued  here  the  moderator 
of  this.  That  is  tho  true  ParliavieyiUivi  Beatum,  the  blessed 
parliament,  and  that  is  the  only  church  that  cannot  erre." 

The  testimony  of  these  famous  divines  puts  utterly  to  jflight  tho 
vile  and  mad  rumors  which  the  royalists  malignantly  raised  against 
the  moral  reputations  of  Hampden  and  Pym,  especially  the  latter. 
It  is  incredible  that  men  like  Baxter  and  Marshall  would  have  so 


nsinrN-cK  cv  .n 


1\    I!>VM.'i);-:N, 


written  or  so  spoken,  had  not  such  reports  been  empty  as  the  wind. 
The  accusation,  commonly  believed  among  the  royalists,  that  Pym 
died  of  a  loathsome  disease,  is  a  calumny  which  only  party  malice 
could  have  invented,  and  was  disproved  by  post-mortem  dissection. 


140  PIONEERS    OF    LIBERTY. 

Before  we  leave  Hampden  Manor,  we  may  recall  the  fact  that 
it  was  the  place  of  Baxter's  residence  during  the  period  of  the 
great  plague  of  London.  He  was  then  visiting  his  beloved  friend, 
Mr.  Richard  Hampden,  "  the  true  heir  of  his  famous  father's 
sincerity,  piety,  and  devotedness  to  God."  From  this  place  he 
returned  to  Acton,  in  March,  1666,  to  find  "  the  church-yard  like 
a  ploughed  field  with  graves,  and  many  of  his  neighbors  dead." 


CHAPTER    V. 


AIMINGS   AT   THE    IMPOSSIBLE. 


♦*  With  many  a  weary  step,  and  many  a  groan, 
Up-hill  rolls  Sisyphus  his  huge  round  stone. 
The  huge  round  stone,  resulting  with  a  bound. 
Thunders  impetuous  down,  and  foams  along  the  ground." 

Pope. 

The  old  town  of  Kimbolton,  in  the  county  of  Huntingdon,  has 
not  much  to  recommend  it,  except  to  an  historical  antiquary. 
Yet  it  is  situated  in  the  midst  of  agreeable  and  quietly-varied 
scenery,  stands  amidst  rich  slopes  of  arable  land,  and  is  in  the 
immediate  adjacency  of  a  ducal  residence  with  an  extensive  park. 
The  town  itself  is  small,  and  its  situation  shows  that  in  former 
times  it  had  nestled  as  closely  as  possible  to  the  baronial  castle 
which  stood  there,  for  protection.  To  many  readers  the  name  of 
Kimbolton  will  at  once  recall  the  remembrance  of  an  important 
history  and  a  despotic  tyrant ;  — of  a  faithless  husband,  an  injured 
wife,  and  of  a  course  of  ecclesiastical  oppression  which  has,  from 
that  day  to  this,  been  the  fruitful  source  of  misconduct  and  dis- 
order. Kimbolton  was  the  residence,  after  her  divorce,  of  Katha- 
rine of  Arragon,  the  first  and  not  least  injured  wife  of  Henry 
Vlil.     One  of  Shakspeare's  best  scenes  points  hither  : 

"  Griff.   How  does  your  grace  ? 

"  Kath.  0  Griffith,  sick  to  death  ; 

My  legs,  like  loaden  branches,  bow  to  the  earth, 
Willing  to  leave  their  burden. 
Now  I  am  past  all  comforts  here  but  prayers. 
Remember  me 


142  AIMINGS    AT   THE   IMPOSSIBLE. 

In  all  humility  unto  his  highness  :  v 

Say  his  long  trouble  now  is  passing 

Out  of  this  world  ;  tell  him  in  death  I  blessed  him, 

And  so  I  will.  —  Mine  eyes  grow  dim.  —  Farewell, 

My  lord  —  Grif&th,  farewell  —  I  must  to  bed  ; 

Call  in  more  women.  —  When  I  am  dead,  good  wench. 

Let.  me  be  used  with  honor  ;  strew  me  o'er 

With  maiden  flowers,  that  all  the  world  may  know 

I  was  a  chaste  wife  to  my  grave  ;  embalm  me, 

Then  lay  me  forth  ;  although  unqueened,  yet  like 

A  queen  and  daughter  to  a  king  inter  me  ; 

I  can  no  more."  — Siiakspeare,  Henry  VIII. 

At  this  time  Kimbolton  Castle  is  represeiited  as  being  "  double 
dyked,  and  the  building  of  it  metely  strong ;  "  in  short,  totally 
unlike  the  aspect  it  presents  at  the  present  day.  Kimbolton  Cas- 
tle has  for  centuries  belonged  to  the  Montagus.  This  name  was 
derived  from  a  town  iu  Normandy  ;  and  as  it  was  convenient  to 
write  it  in  Latin  "  De  Monteacuto,"  it  was  sometimes  termed 
in  English  Moutacutc.  Little  of  the  baronial  style  characterizes 
the  present  residence  of  the  Dukes  of  Manchester.  The  associa- 
tions which  this  chapter  is  intended  to  connect  with  Kimbolton 
belonged  to  it  when  it  was  very  different  from  that  in  which  it  now 
appears. 

No  man  occupied  a  more  prominent  position  during  the  early 
history  of  the  Commonwealth  than  Edward,  afterwards  known  by 
the  name  of  the  Earl  of  Manchester.  His  father  was  Lord  Privy 
Seal  in  the  reign  of  James,  and  had  passed,  as  Clarendon  tells  us, 
"  through  all  the  eminent  degrees  in  the  law  and  in  the  state ;  " 
but,  losing  the  favor  of  the  court,  had  been  left  with  the  empty  title 
of  President  of  the  Council,  and,  to  make  amends,  had  been  cre- 
ated Viscount  Mandeville,  and,  in  James'  latter  days,  Earl  of 
Manchester.  He  died  about  the  opening  of  the  great  civil  war. 
His  son,  of  whom  we  now  principally  write,  had  been  one  of  Prince 
Charles'  attendants  during  the  expedition  to  Spain,  but  being  of 
uncourtly  principles,  and  being  also  known  strongly  to  favor  puri- 


AIMINGS   AT   THE   IMPOSSIBLE.  143 

tanism,  he  had  become  unacceptable  to  his  royal  patron.  His  first 
marriage  was  to  a  relative  of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  by  whose 
influence  he  was  raised  to  the  peerage  whilst  his  father  was  yet  liv- 
ing, under  the  designation  of  Baron  of  Kimbolton.  His  first  wife 
being  dead,  he  married  as  his  second  wife  the  daughter  of  the  Earl 
of  Warwick.  This  alliance  naturally  tended  to  increase  his  predi- 
lections in  favor  of  the  puritans  ;  for  Warwick,  though  himself  of 
facetious  manners,  is  well  known  to  have  greatly  encouraged  and 
protected  that  religious  party.  x\fter  this  marriage.  Lord  Mande- 
ville  gradually  withdrew  himself  from  court,  and  formed  a  strict 
alliance  with  many  noblemen  and  gentlemen  of  similar  views. 
Clarendon  says,  "  There  was  a  kind  of  fraternity  of  many  persons 
of  good  condition,  who  chose  to  live  together  in  one  family  at  a 
gentleman's  house  of  fair  fortune."  This  was  probably  at  Great 
Stoughton,  which  lies  about  three  miles  south  of  Kimbolton.  Val- 
entine Wauton,  or  Walton,  its  proprietor,  was  member  for  the 
county,  and  his  wife  was  Oliver  Cromwell's  youngest  sister.  Be- 
tween this  family  and  Cromwell's  there  was,  therefore,  a  strong 
alliance ;  and  the  reader  of  "  Carlyle's  Letters  "  will  remember  a 
striking  communication  addressed  by  Cromwell  to  his  brother-in- 
law,  announcing  the  death  of  Walton's  son  by  a  cannon-ball  at 
Marston  Moor. 

Manchester's  disposition  was  in  early  life  frank,  generous,  and 
impulsive,  and  he  was  in  the  yery  centre  of  all  the  movements 
contemplated  by  the  party  in  opposition,  as  well  as  a  principal 
actor  in  the  turbulent  scenes  of  the  time.  He  had  the  singular 
honor  of  being  the  only  peer  who  was  included  in  the  list  of  the 
impeached  members  by  the  king's  proscription. 

When,  in  1642,  Charles,  amidst  adverse  and  discouraging 
omens,  first  erected  his  standard  at  Nottingham,  Manchester  was 
appointed  to  one  of  the  principal  posts  of  command.  None  was 
more  earnest  in  the  cause  of  the  parliament,  but  the  views  of 
Manchester  were  narrow  and  confined  ;  he  could  not  step  out  of 
a  prescribed  circle.     That  "  sweet,  meek  man,"  as  Buillie  terms 


144 


AIMINGS    AT    THE    TMPOSSir.LK. 


him,  was,  in  fact,  ill  qualified  to  conduct  an  enterprise  so  vast  to  a 
prosperous  issue.  He  grew  weary  cf  his  position  ;  became  dis- 
gusted with  his  former  allies ;  was  sneered  at  and  scorned  by 
Cromwell,  as  incapable ;  and  ended  by  swearing  allegiance  to  the 
monarch  whose  father  he  had  unwittingly  aided  to  dethrone. 


KIMBOLTON,  UUXTINGDONSHIUE. — IIICSIDENCK    OF    PHILIP   NYE. 


In  the  midst  of  the  town  of  Kimbolton,  and  surrounded  by 
houses,  stands  its  parish  church.  It  is  a  noble  "  time-honored  edi- 
fice," dating  from  the  moeso-gothic  period,  with  castellated  battle- 
ments, deep  buttresses,  and  a  spire  which  shoots  up  high  in  air, 
surmounted  by  the  figure  of  a  cock,  the  memorial  of  Peter's 
denial,  and  in  ancient  times  admonitory  to  the  clergy  of  the  need 
of  pastoral  vigilance.  Its  interior  is  venerable,  though  it  has 
become  divested  of  many  of  the  remnants  of  its  earlier  history. 
Banners  telling  of  militia  warfare  are  pendent  from  the  roof  of 
its  chancel,  and  the  death-memorials  of  a  great  family  are  con- 
spicuous upon  its  walls.  A  costly  monument,  rich  with  marble, 
scroll-work  and  emblazonry,  records  the  titles  and  the  dignities 
of  King  James'  lord   treasurer,  and  seems  to  mock  at  mortal- 

In  a  little  enclosure,  which  might  have  been  once  a  chapel,  stand 
two  marble  tablets,  recording  the  memories  of  the  second  and 
third  wives  of  the  parliamentary  general : 


AIMINGS   AT    THE   IMPOSSIBLE. 


145 


fill  i^emorgc 

OF    THE    HIGHT    HOUNORABLE    ANNE 

LADY   MANDEVILLE   DAUGHTER   TO 

ROBERT     EARL     OF     WARWICK    AND 

WIFE      TO      EDWARD      LORD      MANDEVILLE 

NOWE  EARL  OF   MANCHESTER. 

SHEE     DYED     FEB.     U     ANN,     DOM. 

1641    &    LEFT   THREE   CHILDREN 

1   SONN    &   2   DAUGHTERS. 

HER  HUSBAND   HEE   FTIAYSETH   HER 

SAYING,  MANY  DAUGHTERS  HAVE 

DONE   VIRTUOUSLY    BUT   THOU 

EXCELLEST   THEM   ALL PROVERBS   «1. 


fin  iiaiemorije 

OF   ESSEX,    COUNTESSE    OF   MANCHESTER 

DAUGHTER  TO   SR.  THOMAS   CHEEKE 

&   WIFE  TO   EDWARD  EARL  OF 

MANCHESTER. 

SHE  DYED   THE   28   OF   SEPTEMBER 

ANN.    DOM.    1C53   AND   LEFT 

8  CHILDREN  6  SONNS  & 

2    DAUGHTERS    7    OF   THEM 

SHE  NURSED   WITH   HER  OWN   BREASTS. 


HER  CHILDREN   SHALL  RISE  UP   &    CALL 

HER   BLESSED 
THE   HEART   OF   HER   HUSBAND   SAFELY 

TRUSTED   IN   HER 

SHE  DID   HIM   GOOD    &   NOE  EVILL  ALL 

YE   DA  YES   OF   HER   LIFE 

THEREFORE   HEE   PRAYSETH   HER  AND 

HER   OWN  WORKS   PRAYSE    HER  IN 

YE    GATE PROVERBS   31. 


13 


146  AIMINGS   AT   THE   IMPOSSIBLE. 

Beneath  these  tablets  is  the  vault  of  the  Manchester  family. 
A  visit  to  such  sepulchres  is  sometimes  repulsive  for  other  reasons 
than  the  mental  suggestions  which  belong  to  mortality.  But  this 
enclosure  is  remarkably  clean  and  well  ventilated.  This  is,  how- 
ever, the  only  praise  that  can  be  accorded  to  it ;  for  the  visitor 
who  would  read  the  inscription  on  the  crimson  velvet  coffins  of  the 
fathers  and  mothers,  and  the  remoter  ancestors  and  ancestresses  of 
the  present  family,  is  actually  made  to  walk  upon  their  surface,  — 
an  act  which,  to  those  "mindful  of  the  honored  dead,"  seems  little 
less  than  sepulchral  sacrilege.  We  look  in  vain  amongst  these 
mournful  tenements  for  the  coffin  which  once  contained  the  body 
of  Cromwell's  superior.  In  a  dark  corner,  bricked  up  from  view, 
and  consequently  almost  invisible,  we  saw  two  mouldered  recepta- 
cles which  might  possibly  have  belonged  to  the  parliamentary 
earl ;  but  the  brass  plate,  which  had  been  perhaps  originally  on 
the  coffin,  had  been  altogether  removed,  and  conjecture  was  use- 
less. The  attendant  could  supply  us  with  no  information ;  but, 
after  being  pressed  with  inquiries,  produced  at  length  from  a  dark 
corner  of  the  mausoleum  a  bundle  of  plates,  which  it  appeared 
had  been  detached  at  some  time  or  other  from  the  narrow  homes 
of  those  whom  nobility  and  fortune  had  once  dignified.  Amongst 
these  we  found  the  following : 


3E9e|)osttuin. 

NOBILLISSIMI   &   ILLU8TRISSIMI  DOMINI,  DNI 

EDWARDI,  COMITIS   MANCHESTRI^ 

VICECOMITIS    MANDEVILLE    BARONIS    DE 

KIMBOLTON   IIOSPITII   DNI   REGIS   CAMERA  RIUS 

UNIVERSITATIS   CANTABRIGL^   CANCELLARIUS   CAROLO 

2D0     REGI     AUGUSTISSIMO     A     SECRETI0RIBU3     CONSILIIS 

NOBILLISSIMI   ORDINIS    GARTERII  EQUITI8 

QUI   APUD   WHITEHALL   PIISSIM^ 

IN   DOMINO    OBDORMIVIT   VTO   DIE   MAII 

ANNO   A   CHRISTO    NATO   MDC  :    LXXI. 

^TATIS   SU^   LXIX. 


AIMINGS   AT    THE   IMPOSSIBLE.  147 

If  the  classical  reader  shall  happen  to  detect  any  errors  in  the 
composition  of  this  memorial,  he  must  blame  the  Latinity  of  1699, 
or  the  ignorance  of  the  engraver  of  the  escutcheon,  and  not  the 
transcriber. 

Perhaps,  after  all,  the  object  of  great  interest  in  Kimbolton 
church  is  its  pulpit.  It  possesses  a  singular  adornment  in  the 
shape  of  a  large  hammer-cloth,  richly  embroidered  with  gold  lace 
of  a  gorgeous  and  elegant  pattern,  evidently  of  no  recent  date. 
This  piece  of  tapestry  is  recorded  to  have  been  worked  by  one  of 
the  ancestresses  of  the  Manchester  family,  who,  when  it  was  near 
its  completion,  pricked  her  finger  with  the  needle  she  had  used  in 
executing  it,  and  died  of  the  wound.  Till  a  very  recent  period 
the  needle  was  itself  preserved  with  religious  veneration.  It  has 
now,  we  believe,  altogether  disappeared. 

A  great  name  is  associated  with  the  pulpit  of  Kimbolton  church. 
It  is  that  of  Philip  Nye.  When  the  parliament  of  England 
gained  the  ascendency,  and  removed  from  their  position  many 
ignorant  and  incompetent  clergymen,  Nye,  who  had  descended 
from  a  well-born  family,  had  received  his  education  at  Oxford,  and 
had  fled  to  Holland  from  the  persecution  of  Archbishop  Laud,  was 
appointed  by  the  Earl  of  Manchester  minister  of  the  church  at-^ 
Kimbolton.  A  fire  in  Coleman-street,  where  Nye's  papers  were 
deposited,  unhappily  prevents  us  from  forming  an  intimate  ac- 
quaintance with  the  earlier  history  of  this  remarkable  man ;  and 
very  little  except  the  fact  we  have  just  narrated  is  known  of  Philip 
Nye,  till  we  arrive  at  the  period  in  which  was  summoned  the  well- 
known  Westminster  Assembly. 

We  must  beg  the  reader's  pardon  for  a  slight  historical  digres- 
sion, whilst  we  attempt  to  lay  before  him  some  of  the  circumstances 
which  led  to  this  famous  convocation.  We  return  for  a  moment  to 
the  times  of  Archbishop  Laud. 

The  evil  spirit  by  which  Charles  was  possessed  led  him,  in  a 
dark  hour,  even  when  all  the  elements  of  discord  were  raging  and 
boiling  around  him  in  England,  to  impose  upon  the  Scottish  people 
the  prelacy  of  the  English  establishment.     No  infatuation  could 


148  AIMINGS   AT   THE   IMPOSSIBLE. 

be  more  perfect  than  that  which  led  Charles  at  that  moment  to 
adopt  Laud's  advice.  Who  does  not  know  the  storj  of  the  cutty- 
stool,  thrown  at  the  Dean  of  Edinburgh,  in  St.  Giles'  church,  by 
Jeannie  Geddes,  on  the  first  reading  of  the  English  prayers  in  that 
ancient  cathedral  ?  ^  Who  does  not  know,  moreover,  how  from 
that  moment  Scottish  episcopacy  was  rent  to  tatters  ?  The  whole 
country  flew  to  arms.  Christ's  crown  and  covenant  headed  every 
array,  or  was  lighted  up  by  every  watch-fire ;  and  even  Charles  him- 
self stood  for  a  moment  aghast  at  the  consequences  of  his  own  stu- 
pendous folly.  But  Charles  was  no  yielder ;  and  there  was  no 
possibility  of  forcing  into  his  mind  anything  like  a  sincere  convic- 
tion that  he  had  been  in  error.  There  was  an  Eve,  too,  standing 
at  his  ear  and  strengthening  his  will  whenever  it  was  irresolute, 
though  in  a  manner  altogether  opposite  to  Pope's  character  of  the 
wise  wife : 

"  She  who  ne'er  answers  till  a  husband  cools, 
And,  if  she  rules  him,  never  shows  she  rules  ;" 

for,  when  the  king  was  somewhat  undecided  about  seizing  the  five 
members,  the  papistical  Henrietta  Maria  said  to  him :  "  Go,  you 
poltroon,  and  pull  these  rogues  out  by  the  ears,  or  never  see  my 
face  any  more  !  "  Whether  under  this  influence  or  not,  Charles 
determined  to  maintain  his  ground ;  and,  having  dissolved  parlia- 
ment and  thrown  its  leading  members  into  prison,  obtained  from 
convocation  a  large  sum  of  money,  to  enable  him  to  prosecute  the 
war  against  the  Scots.     If  anything  were  necessary  to  increase 

*  "  For  when  a  woman  scolding  mad  is. 
We  call  her  daft  as  Jenny  Geddes." 

This  celebrated  lady  was,  we  fear,  of  no  unspotted  fame.  The  first  actors  in 
reformation  are  usually  to  be  distinguished  from  those  whose  principles  prompt 
the  movement.  Jenny  Geddes  was  only  a  forward  expositor  on  this  occasion 
of  a  popular  sentiment.  The  stool  —  or  what  is  believed  to  be  such  —  is  still 
preserved  in  the  Museum  of  Antiquaries,  Edinburgh.  It  is  a  light  kind  of 
camp-stool,  bearing  the  date  1565.  The  prayer-book  was  called,  in  these 
times,  "the  mass;"  the  surplice,  "the  sark  of  God."  —  See  Minstrelsy  oftht 
Scottish  Border^  vol.  ll.,  p.  167. 


AIMINGS   AT    THE   IMPOSSIBLE.  149 

the  odium  of  this  illegal  transaction,  it  was  supplied  by  Laud,  who 
instigated  the  convocation  to  publish  seventeen  canons,  one  of 
which  required  all  clergymen  to  take  an  oath,  which  ran  thus : 
"  Nor  will  I  ever  give  my  consent  to  alter  the  government  of  this 
church  by  archbishops,  bishops,  deans,  archdeacons,  &c.,  as  it 
stands  now  established."  This  pledge  was  called  the  "  et-cetera 
oath,"  and  was  signally  offensive  on  two  grounds :  first,  because  it 
demanded  approval  of  the  whole  prelatical  establishment;  and, 
secondly,  because  it  was  so  indefinite  that  no  man  knew  precisely 
what  he  was  required  to  swear.  But  for  refusing  to  take  this 
oath  multitudes  of  worthy  clergymen  were  reviled,  fined,  and 
imprisoned. 

Charles  now  marched  to  Scotland,  to  subdue  his  refractory  sub- 
jects. They,  acting  in  correspondence  with  the  patriot  leaders  in 
England,  marched  across  the  border,  and  took  possession  of  New- 
castle. The  treaty  of  Ripon  led  to  a  temporary  cessation  of 
hostilities. 

On  the  10  th  September,  1642,  the  prelatic  form  of  church  gov- 
ernment was,  by  vote  of  parliament,  abolished.  The  oppressed 
puritans  had  now  removed  from  the  position  of  sufferers  into  that 
of  law-makers.  How  did  they  comport  themselves  in  their  altered 
circumstances  ? 

It  is  plainly  impossible  that  the  administration  of  religion,  in  an 
ecclesiastical  system,  could  have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  more  sin- 
cere or  of  more  spiritual  men.  The  quality  of  puritanical  piety 
was  pure,  —  much  purer  than  that  which  ordinarily  demands  the 
respect  of  mankind.  Their  religion  had  been  learned  from  no 
authority,  except  a  divine  one.  Nothing  resembling  its  tone  of 
fervor  had  previously  existed  around  them ;  and,  in  maintaining 
it,  they  had  adopted  no  fashion  of  the  day.  Their  professions  had 
been  winnowed  and  tested  by  persecution,  —  had  been  often  placed 
in  the  crucible,  or  passed  through  the  fire ;  and  they  possessed  a 
vitality  which  had  cheered  their  companions,  and  often  silenced 
their  very  enemies.  They  had  themselves  suffered  for  heresy  (as 
it  was  termed  by  others) ;  it  was  a  just  inference  that  they  would 
13# 


150  AIMINGS    AT    THE    IMPOSSIBLE. 

understand  how  to  behave  to  those  who  were  heretics  in  their  own 
eyes.  They  had  proved,  in  their  own  unaltered  convictions,  that 
the  arm  of  power  was  too  short  to  reach  the  inner  man ;  and  that 
a  creed  became  suspicious  just  in  proportion  as  its  adoption  was 
externally  forced.  They  had  experience  (in  their  own  persons, 
or  in  that  of  their  forefathers)  how  Henry  VIII.  had  led  the 
nation  away  from  popery,  and  would  have  restored  it  to  popery 
(himself  only  wearing  the  tiara)  again;  they  had  bled  under 
Mary  for  being  protestants  at  all,  and  under  Elizabeth  for  being 
protestants  of  any  form  save  one ;  they  had,  under  James'  and 
Charles'  rule,  felt  often  convinced  that,  if  the  prelatical  form  of 
religion  had  been  true,  it  would  not  have  availed  itself  of  such 
inconclusive  arguments  as  physical  ones  to  support  it ;  and  now, 
these  men  —  men  of  an  education  fully  equal  to  the  mass  of  the 
clergy  in  any  age  (perhaps  superior  to  most  ages)  —  these  men, 
whose  deep  and  fervent  piety  thrilled  through  every  fibre  of  their 
nature,  and  had  been  attested  by  sacrifices  of  every  possible 
amount,  —  men  whose  heartfelt  sincerity  and  simplicity  will  in  all 
probability  be  felt,  by  means  of  their  writings,  to  the  end  of  time, 
—  these  men  were  permitted  by  Divine  Providence  to  leap  into 
the  chariot  from  which  the  unskilful  and  malignant  drivers  had 
been  just  precipitated.  And  what  was  the  course  they  pursued  ? 
They  altered  the  venue,  but  they  kept  the  legislation ;  they  changed 
the  hand,  but  they  retained  the  sword  ;  they  mitigated  the  pen- 
alty, whilst,  though  the  criminals  were  difierent,  they  yet  pursued 
the  offence.  The  consequence  was,  that  they  were  preparing  for 
themselves  a  sad  and  desolating  reaction,  —  a  reaction  by  which 
laws,  liberties,  religion,  were  a  second  time  thrown  down ;  and 
they  added  thus  a  new  lesson  to  the  many  read  before,  —  a  lesson 
the  more  forcible  because  we  love  and  venerate  the  men  from  whose 
mistake  we  have  received  it,  —  that  force  in  religion  makes  slaves, 
and  never  freemen ;  that  the  noblest  forms  of  piety  do  not  flour- 
ish in  its  atmosphere ;  and  that  religion  is  a  thing  which  men 
may  embrace,  but  into  which  they  will  never  be  driven.  Let  us 
be  wiser  by  the  experience  we  have  so  disastrously  gained  ! 


AIMINGS   AT   THE   IMPOSSIBLE.  151 

It  is  with  a  sad  and  shuddering  heart  that  the  true  lover  of 
religious  liberty  follows  the  course  of  inconoclasticism  pursued  in 
those  days.  So  far  as  prelacy  was  a  tyrannical  and  unjust  usurpa- 
tion over  the  rights  of  conscience,  it  deserved  to  be  exterminated. 
Happy  had  it  been  if  the  consequences  had  stopped  at  this  point ! 
Some  considerable  allowance  might  also  be  made,  if  the  true  prot- 
estants  of  that  day  believed  that  popery  was  not  to  be  regarded  as 
a  spiritual  system  alone,  but  as  one  which  aimed  at  an  unrighteous 
temporal  sovereignty.     But  the  desolation  went   much  further. 

It  was  not  merely  that  they  deprived  bishops  of  their  seats  in 
the  House  of  Peers,  but  it  was  that  they  proceeded  against  the  per- 
sons of  those  who  had  been  attached  to  prelacy  with  relentless 
eagerness.  It  was  not  merely  that  they  took  every  precaution  to 
screen  themselves  from  the  political  rule  of  Romanism;  nor  yet 
was  it  that  they  removed  from  the  army  all  Roman  Catholics,  —  a 
measure  which  was  undoubtedly  justified  by  the  excitement  of  the 
times.  But  it  was  that  they  desired  to  seize  the  lands  of  popish 
recusants,  to  execute  bloody  laws  against  priests,  and  to  depress 
and  subject  to  penalties  all  forms  of  religion  except  their  own. 

In  the  mean  time,  an  enthusiastic  but  senseless  rage  took  pos- 
session of  the  public  mind,  which  led  to  the  extensive  destruction 
of  ecclesiastical  property.  Organs  were  pulled  asunder;  com- 
munion-plate was  melted  down  ;  prayer-books  were  torn  in  pieces; 
tombs  were  opened  and  despoiled ;  market  crosses  were  pulled 
down  or  defaced.=^  The  commons  sent  commissioners  into  the 
counties,  to  remove  from  the  churches  altars,  images,  crucifixes, 
and  other  idolatrous  relics.  "  In  diverse  churches,"  says  Baillie, 
"  the  people  raised  psalms  to  sing  out  the  service ;  and  in  some 
they  pulled  down  the  rallies  before  the  altars."  Doubtless  these 
excesses  of  popular  feeling  often  went  beyond  the  intentions  of  the 
patriot  leaders ;  but  the  prelatical  party  was  reaping  only  the  har- 
vest which  Laud  and  Strafford  had  sown,  though,  unquestionably, 

*  ** Paul's  and  Westminster,"  says  Baillie,  "are  purged  of  their  images  and 
organs,  and  all  which  gave  offence.  My  Lord  Manchester  made  two  fair  bon- 
fires of  such  trinkets  at  Cambridge." 


152  AIMINGS   AT    THE   IMPOSSIBLE. 

the  proceedings  were  beneath  the  importance  of  the  occasion,  and 
provoked,  at  a  later  period,  a  tremendous  retaliation.  The  true 
quarrel  was  not  with  the  prayer-book,  but  with  its  impositions. 

In  order  to  supplement  prelacy,  thus  abolished,  the  Long  Par- 
liament issued  an  ordinance  convening  an  assembly  of  divines,  for 
the  purpose  of  effecting  a  reformation  of  religion.  This  measure 
was  dated  June  12th,  1643.  After  declaring  the  purity  of  reli- 
gion to  be  one  of  the  greatest  blessings,  and  reciting  the  act  passed 
for  the  abolition  of  the  hierarchy,  it  convoked  '*  all  and  every  the 
persons  hereafter  in  this  ordinance  named,  that  is  to  say  "  (here 
follow  the  names),  "  and  such  other  persons  as  shall  be  nominated 
and  appointed  by  both  houses  of  parliament,"  &c.  &c.,  "  to  meet 
and  assemble  at  Westminster,  in  the  chapel  called  King  Henry 
VII.'s  Chapel,  on  the  1st  July,  1643,"  ^  ^  "to  confer  and 
treat  among  themselves  of  such  matters  and  things  touching  the 
liturgy,  discipline  and  government  of  the  Church  of  England,  or 
the  vindicating  and  clearing  of  the  same  from  all  false  aspersions 
and  misconstructions,  as  shall  be  proposed  to  them  by  both  or 
either  of  the  said  houses  of  parliament  and  no  other,  ^  ^  and 
not  to  divulge  by  printing,  writing,  or  otherwise,  without  the  con- 
sent of  both  or  either  house  of  parliament."  The  same  warrant 
provided  that  Wm.  Twisse,  D.  D.,  should  occupy  the  chair,  and 
that  four  shillings  per  day  should  be  allowed  to  each  member  for 
his  expenses. 

The  very  constitution  of  the  assembly  proceeded  upon  confused 
and  imperfect  views  of  the  duties  of  the  civil  government  in  mat- 
ters of  religion.  Dr.  Hetherington,  the  historian  of  the  Free 
Church,  says,  deliberately,  "  It  may  be  said,  with  the  most  strict 
propriety,  that  the  native  aim  and  tendency  of  the  Westminster 
Assembly  was  to  establish  the  presbyterian  government  in  Eng- 
land, the  great  body  of  English  puritans  having  gradually  become 
presbyterians."=^  Unquestionably  it  was.  Nor  can  we  claim  for 
any  of  the  leading  parties  of  that  day  the  possession  of  a  clear 

*  History  of  the  Westmiiister  Assembly,  p.  136. 


AIMINGS   AT    THE   IMPOSSIBLE.  153 

understanding  of  voluntary  religion.  It  was  deemed  the  duty  of 
the  state  to  be  religious.  It  was,  undoubtedly,  the  duty  of  every 
man  regulating  the  state  to  be  such;  for  that  is  an  obligation 
which  rests  upon  each  member  of  the  human  family.  But  the 
essence  of  the  state,  as  an  organized  system,  is  force ;  and  force 
applied  to  religion  neutralizes  its  whole  character,  which  is  the 
voluntary  surrender  of  the  soul  to  God.  Religion  is  an  affair  of 
believed  truths,  of  experimental  conviction,  of  the  practical  exem- 
plification of  prescribed  duties.  The  state  has  no  soul  to  believe 
the  truths,  to  experience  the  convictions,  or  to  practise  the  duties, 
which  religion  involves.  "  The  circumstance  of  a  state  church 
denies  in  principle,  and  compromises  in  fact,  these  sacred  charac- 
teristics—  namely,  individuality  and  spontaneity — of  every  true 
worship ;  it  annihilates,  as  far  as  in  it  lies,  the  religious  being ;  it 
is  not  we,  then,  it  is  itself,  which  delivers  to  the  state,  under  the 
name  of  a  complete  man,  a  wreck,  a  caput  tnortuum  of  the  human 
being."  ^ 

In  convening  the  assembly,  the  parliament  authoritatively  indi- 
cated the  persons  of  whom  it  should  be  composed  ;  though  pains 
were  taken  to  secure  a  comprehension  of  men  of  a  few  different 
shades  of  religious  sentiment.  Of  Romanists,  indeed,  there  were 
none,  and  it  was  impossible  that  there  should  be.  Nor  were 
quakers  and  baptists  represented  in  the  convocation.  But  sum- 
monses were  addressed  to  moderate  episcopalians, —  that  is,  to  those 
who  were  not  prominent  among  the  ranks  of  the  stronger  prela- 
tists ;  Erastians  —  that  is,  those  who  believed  with  Erastus,  that  the 
ecclesiastical  powers  of  a  state  should  be  altogether  subordinated  to 
its  civil  apparatus  —  were  also  summoned,  and  a  few  of  the  most 
eminent  among  the  independents  were  nominated.  But  the  major- 
ity of  the  assessors  was  composed  of  presbyterians.  The  lords 
were, — the  Earls  of  Northumberland,  Bedford,  Pembroke  and 
Montgomery,  Salisbury,  Holland,  Manchester,  Say  and  Sele,  Con- 
way, Wharton  and  Howard.     Among  the  members  of  the  Com- 

*  Vinet  on  Separation  of  Church  and  State,  chap.  x. 


154  AIMINGS   AT   THE   IMPOSSIBLE. 

mons  were  Selden,  whose  book  on  "Tithes"  —  published  1618 — 
had  shown  that  tithes  were  not  the  property  of  the  clergy  by 
divine  right,  but  only  by  the  law  of  the  land,  and  who,  for  the 
publication  of  that  book,  had  been  compelled,  in  James'  day,  to 
make  submission  before  the  privy-council ;  one  of  Hampden's 
defenders  in  the  matter  of  ship-money,  a  man  of  great  learning, 
who  often  told  the  divines,  "  Perhaps  in  your  pocket-books  with 
gilt  leaves  the  translation  may  be  thus ;  but  the  Greek  or  the 
Hebrew  signify  thus  and  thus ;"  Sir  H.  Vane,  senior,  and  his  son, 
—  the  former  had  been  secretary  of  state  to  Charles  I.,  the  latter 
had  been  chosen  governor  of  New  England,  a  man  of  great  ability, 
quickness  and  versatility ;  apt  to  be  led  astray  by  quips  and 
crotchets,  but  a  sincere  lover  of  liberty,  and  a  man  of  first-rate 
eminence ;  Bulstrode  Whitelocke,  then  member  for  Marlow, 
afterwards  ambassador  to  the  Queen  of  Sweden,  to  whose  "  Memo- 
rials," though  tinged  with  party  spirit,  we  are  indebted  for  much 
information  of  the  times  ;  Oliver  St.  John,  the  celebrated  defender 
of  Hampden,  whose  wife  was  mother  of  Mrs.  Lucy  Hutchinson  ; 
and  John  Pym,  who  was,  however,  prevented  by  an  untimely  death 
from  taking  his  part  as  an  assessor. 

The  presbyterian  divines  were  very  numerous.  Among  them 
were  Valentine,  suspended  for  refusing  to  read  "  The  Book  of 
Sports ;"  Stephen  Marshall,  father-in-law  of  Nye,  a  man  of  the 
highest  Christian  eminence,  a  firm  antagonist  of  the  divine  right 
of  bishops,  in  opposition  to  which  dogma,  he  had,  with  othei*s, 
drawn  up  a  work  entitled  *'  Smectymnuus,"  an  anagrammatic  com- 
pound of  the  initials  of  its  authors,  S.  M.  (Marshall),  E.  C.  (Cal- 
amy),  T.  Y.  (Young),  M.  N.  (Newcomen),  W.  S.  (Spurstowe) ; 
Thomas  Case,  who  first  set  up  the  "  Morning  Exercises,"  and  was 
afterwards  imprisoned  for  conspiracy  against  the  parliament ;  Dr. 
Gouge,  an  eminent  theologian  and  practical  writer ;  Dr.  Reynolds, 
subsequently  Bishop  of  Norwich  ;  Dr.  Love,  afterwards  beheaded 
for  corresponding  with  Charles  XL ;  Edward  Calamy,  a  leading 
minister  of  London ;  Dr.  Spurstowe,  one  of  the  chaplains  of  the 
lately-deceased  Hampden,  with  many  others. 


AIMINGS    AT   THE   IMPOSSIBLE.  155 

The  Erastian  party  comprehended  Thomas  Coleman,  Dr.  Light- 
foot, — a  name  in  the  highest  repute  among  scholars  and  critics, — 
and  some  others. 

The  independents  —  a  portion  of  whom  were  designated,  by 
emphasis,  "the  five  dissenting  brethren"  —  were  principally  Dr. 
Thomas  Goodwin,  of  whom  Owen  said,  "  Nothing  nor  great,  nor 
considerable,  nor  someway  eminent,  is  by  any  person  spoken  of 
him,  either  consenting  with  him  or  differing  from  him,"  afterwards 
president  of  Magdalen  College,  Oxford  ;  Sydrach  Simpson,  a  good 
scholar  ;  Jeremiah  Burroughes,  author  of  a  commentary  on  Hosea, 
and  remarkable  for  his  gentle  and  pacific  disposition ;  William 
Bridge,  once  minister  of  the  parish  church  at  St.  George's  Tomb- 
land,  Norwich,  of  whom,  when  he  fled  from  persecution  to  Holland, 
Laud  said,  "  We  are  well  rid  of  him  ! "  the  first  pastor  of  a  congre- 
gational church  in  Yarmouth  ;  and  Philip  Nye,  a  man  of  remark- 
able learning,  quickness  and  subtlety.  "  He  left  behind  him,"  says 
Dr.  Calamy,  "  the  character  of  a  man  of  uncommon  depth,  who 
was  seldom,  if  ever,  outreached."  In  addition  to  these  "five,"  were 
Caryl,  author  of  the  exposition  of  Job,  and  Greenhill,  who  wrote 
the  commentary  on  Ezekiel,  and  was,  as  evening  preacher,  called 
"  the  evening-star  of  Stepney." 

The  episcopal  party  were  prohibited  by  the  king  from  taking 
part  in  this  assembly.  Only  one  appeared.  Dr.  Featley.  He  was 
subsequently  accused  of  revealing  the  secrets  of  the  assembly  to 
Archbishop  Usher,  and  was  expelled  the  convocation,  and  com- 
mitted to  prison.  The  places  of  the  twenty-five  who  thus  absented 
themselves  were,  in  the  end,  supplied  by  twenty-five  others.  The 
usual  attendance  was  between  seventy  and  eighty.  All  these, 
however,  did  not  take  part  in  the  debates,  which  were  usually 
conducted  by  a  few  of  the  greatest  eminence. 

When  the  assembly  met,  a  sermon  was  preached  to  them  and  to 
a  very  large  congregation,  in  the  abbey  church,  Westminster,  by 
their  prolocutor.  Dr.  Twisse.  They  then  adjourned  to  Henry 
VII. 's  Chapel.     This  was  on  Saturday,  July  1st,  1643. 

It  is  not  wonderful  if  such  a  convocation  drew  forth  expressions 


156  ATMINGS   AT   THE   IMPOSSIBLE. 

of  very  diverse  opinions  as  to  its  character  and  value.  The  king, 
Laud  (then  in  prison),  Clarendon,  Echard,  all  vehemently 
denounced  it.  Baxter  says,  "  Being  not  worthy  to  be  one  "  (of 
the  assembly)  "  myself,  I  may  the  more  freely  speak  the  truth, 
even  in  the  face  of  malice  and  envy ;  that,  so  far  as  I  am  able  to 
judge  by  the  information  of  all  history  of  that  kind,  and  by  any 
other  evidences  left  us,  the  Christian  world,  since  the  days  of  the 
apostles,  had  never  a  synod  of  more  excellent  divines  than  this  and 
the  synod  of  Dort."  Milton  in  the  first  instance  applauded  it ; 
but  when  this  very  assembly  denounced  his  "  Treatise  on  Marriage 
and  Divorce,"  and  caused  him  even  to  be  summoned  before  the 
House  of  Lords,  he  saw  reason  to  alter  his  conclusions.  Hallam 
speaks  of  the  assembly  as  "equal  in  learning,  good  sense,  and  other 
merits,  to  any  lower  house  of  convocation  that  ever  ma4e  a  figure 
in  England." 

Unhappily,  the  authorized  journal  of  the  proceedings  of  this 
assembly  is  irrecoverably  lost.  Some  say  that  it  was  burnt  in  the 
fire  of  1666  ;  others,  that  it  is  still  preserved  in  the  library  of  Sion 
College,  London.  But  there  it  is  not  to  be  found ;  and  many 
believe  it  to  have  been  destroyed  by  the  fire  which  consumed  the 
houses  of  parliament  in  1834,  having  been  carried  there  to  assist 
the  inquiries  of  the  commissioners  into  the  question  of  Scottish 
patronage,  which  was  then  pending.  Certain  it  is,  however,  that 
the  only  sources  of  information  open  to  the  public  are  the  journals 
of  Baillie,  one  of  the  Scottish  commissioners,  and  the  other  journal 
kept  by  Dr.  Lightfoot,  one  of  the  assembly. 

The  time  at  which  this  assembly  is  gathered  together  is  very 
critical.  Essex  is  commander  of  the  parliamentary  forces ;  the 
Earl  of  Manchester  having  direction  over  the  eaijtern  counties, 
with  Cromwell  serving  under  him,  but  by  no  means  relishing  the 
half-measures  of  his  suj^erior  officer.  Strafford  has  been  executed. 
Laud  is  in  the  Tower,  whence  he  will  remove  no  more  alive.  The 
battle  of  Newbury  has  been  fought ;  but,  out  of  the  whole,  it  is 
difficult  to  say  whether  the  military  advantage  be  on  the  side  of 
the  king  or  of  the  parliament.      Charles  is  at  Oxford,  and  the 


AIMINGS    AT   THE    IMPOSSIBLE.  157 

Scotch  are  siammoning  an  army  for  a  third  expedition  to  England. 
In  the  view  of  the  Scottish  people,  much  depends  upon  this  army. 
Independency  has  become,  in  their  eyes,  a  very  dangerous  dogma ; 
but  it  must  be  borne  with,  they  think,  till  their  army  shall  advance, 
and  they  shall  be  in  a  position  to  crush  it.  Besides,  bad  as  inde- 
pendency is,  "  we  expect,"  says  Baillie,  "  no  small  help  from  them 
to  abolish  the  great  idol  of  England,  the  service-book."  And 
again,  "we  did  not  much  care  for  delays  till  the  breath  of  our 
army  might  blow  upon  us  some  more  favor  and  strength.  So 
that  the   independent   party  were   but  walking   over   concealed 


The  labors  of  the  assembly  began  upon  the  thirty-nine  articles. 
The  first  fifteen  occupied  them  ten  weeks,  and  gave  them  much 
trouble.  As  this  assembly  had  been  originally  called  in  compli- 
ance with  the  wishes  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  one  of  the  earliest 
acts  of  the  parliament,  after  its  sitting,  was  to  send  a  deputation 
across  the  border,  to  solicit  the  presence  in  the  convocation  of 
Scottish  commissioners.  The  embassy  on  this  occasion  consisted 
of  the  Earl  of  Rutland  for  the  lords  ;  Sir  W.  Armyn,  Sir  Harry 
Vane,  jr.,  Mr.  Hatcher  and  Mr.  Darloy,  from  the  commons ;  and 
Mr.  Marshall  and  Mr.  Nye,  from  the  assembly  of  divines.  Baillie, 
principal  of  the  university  of  Glasgow,  gives  us  a  graphic  account 
of  the  whole  transactions. 

Nye,  it  appears,  was  very  unacceptable,  beforehand,  to  ihe  Scot- 
tish assembly.  "  Mr.  Marshall  will  be  most  welcome,  but  if  Mr. 
Nye,  the  head  of  the  independents,  be  his  fellow,  we  cannot  take 
it  well.""^  There  was  considerable  delay  during  the  sittings  of 
the  assembly  before  the  English  envoys  arrived.  "We  were 
ashamed  with  waiting."  "  We  had  our  first  session  in  a  little 
roome  of  the  east  church,"  (qu.  of  St.  Giles  ?)  "  which  is  very 
handsomelie  dressed  for  our  assemblies  in  all  time  coming."  Some 
of  the  business  which  occupied  the  body  is  mournfully  character- 
istic of  the  times.     "  Upon  the  regrate "  (regret ?)  "of  the  extra- 

♦BaUlie's  Letters  to  Spang,  July  26,  1643  :  and  Sept.  22,  1643. 

14 


158  AIMINGS   AT    THE   IMPOSSIBLE. 

ordinar  multiplying  of  witches,  above  thirtie  being  burnt  in  Fife  in 
a  few  months,  a  committee  was  appointed  to  thinke  on  that  sinne, 
the  way  to  search  and  cure  it." 

At  length  the  English  commissioners  land  in  a  "  strong  vessel," 
appointed  for  the  voyage,  at  Leith.  "  The  lords  went  and  con- 
voyed them  up  in  coatch.  We  were  exhorted  to  be  more  grave 
than  ordinaire ;  and  so,  indeed,  all  was  carried  to  the  end  with 
much  more  awe  and  gravity  than  usual."  These  messengers 
brought,  it  appears,  very  urgent  letters  from  England,  which  made 
mention  of  the  doubtful  position  in  which  the  parliament  stood,  and 
requested  help  from  the  Scotch.  "  The  letter  of  the  private  divines 
was  so  lamentable,  that  it  drew  tears  from  many."  "  The  English 
were  for  a  civill  league,  we  for  a  religious  covenant.  When  they 
were  brought  to  us  in  this  (and  Mr.  Hendersone  had  ^ven  them 
a  draught  of  a  covenant,  we  were  not  like  to  agree  on  the  frame), 
they  were  more  nor  we  could  assent  to  for  keeping  of  a  doore 
open  in  England  to  independencie.  Against  this  we  were  per- 
emptor."  "  In  none  of  our  brethren  appears  as  yet  the  least  incli- 
nation to  independencie." 

After  nmch  debate,  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  framed 
by  Henderson,  moderator  of  the  assembly,  was  agi*eed  to  by  the 
English  commissioners,  and  passed,  not  without  considerable  mis- 
giving, we  may  imagine,  on  the  part  of  Philip  Nye.  The  times 
were,  it  must  be  perceived,  uncommonly  difi&cult.  Without  the 
aid  of  the  Scottish  army,  it  was  manifestly  impossible  that  the 
parliament  could  make  head  against  the  king ;  and  every  circum- 
stance concurs  to  prove  that  the  independent  party,  pressed  by  the 
exigencies  of  the  times,  yielded  in  this  affair  their  better  judg- 
ment. As  it  was,  an  opportunity  of  the  most  extensive  usefulness 
was  lost,  never  to  be  regained ;  and  in  pledging  themselves  to  the 
Scottish  covenant,  men  were  abandoning  the  high  principles  of 
liberty  for  which  the  war  with  the  king  had  been  undertaken, 
were  weaving  extensive  snares  for  men's  consciences,  and  were 
arming  the  civil  government  with  a  power  too  soon  to  be  directed 
a^inst  themselves. 


AIMINGS   AT    THE    IxMPOSSIBLE.  159 

Something,  at  least,  which  Nye  said  or  did  on  this  occasion, 
appears  to  have  given  no  little  oflFence. 

"  The  Sabbath  before  noon,  in  the  new  church,  we  heard  Mr. 
Marshall  preach  with  great  contentment ;  but,  in  the  afternoon,  in 
the  Grey  Friars,  Mr.  Nye  did  not  please.  His  voice  was  clamor- 
ous ;  he  touched,  neither  in  prayer  or  preaching,  the  common 
bussinesse."  That  is,  he  did  not  preach  about  the  covenant.  "  He 
read  much  out  of  his  paper  book.  All  his  sermon  was  on  the 
common  head  of  a  spiritual  life ;  wherein  he  ran  out  above  all  our 
understandings,  upon  a  knowledge  of  God,  as  God,  without  the 
Scripture,  without  grace,  without  Christ.  They  say  he  amended 
it  somewhat  the  next  Sabbath."  =^  This  covenant,  thus  agreed 
upon,  was  sent  in  "  a  ketch  "  to  London,  where  it  occasioned  no 
little  difficulty.  In  the  assembly  of  divines,  all  seemed  to  have 
approved  it,  except  Burgess.t  He,  we  are  told, "  did  doubt  for  one 
night."  About  this  time  a  mob  besieged  the  House  of  Commons, 
demanding  peace  with  the  king  on  any  terms ;  and  some  of  the 
lords,  who  ^vere  adverse  to  the  proceedings  of  the  parliament, 
"  stole  away."  "  Surely,"  says  Baillie,  "  it  was  a  great  act  of 
faith  in  God,  and  huge  courage,  and  unheard-of  compassion,  that 
moved  our  nation  to  hazard  their  own  peace,  and  venture  their 
lives  and  all  for  to  save  a  people  irrecoverablie  ruined,  both  in 
their  owne,  and  all  the  world's  eyes." 

^  #  4^  #  # 

The  scene  now  changes  to  St.  Margaret's  Church,  \yestminster, 
which  the  reader  may  remember  to  be  a  parochial  edifice,  standing 
by  the  side  of  the  great  abbey.  The  whole  assembly  of  divines, 
together  with  the  House  of  Commons,  here  met  with  the  Scottish 
commissioners,  among  their  number  Henderson,  Lord  Maitland 
(subsequently  Lord  Lauderdale),  and  Gillespie.     To  these  were 

*  Baillie's  Letter  to  Spang,  Sept.  22,  1643. 

t  "  A  wretch,"  says  Dr.  Lightfoot,  speaking  of  Burgess  and  his  opposition, 
**  that  ought  to  be  branded  to  all  posterity,  who  seeks,  for  some  devilish  ends 
either  of  his  own  or  others,  or  both,  to  hinder  so  great  a  good  of  the  two 
nations. 


160  AIMINGS   AT    THE   IMPOSSIBLt:. 

added,  at  a  later  period,  Archibald  Johnston,  of  Warrington,  a 
victim,  ill  later  days,  of  Lord  Lauderdale's  barbarity;  Samuel 
Rutherford,  largely  known  by  his  religious  and  devotional  works  ; 
and  Eobert  Baillie,  afterwards  Principal  of  Glasgow,  to  whose  let- 
ters we  are  mainly  indebted  for  our  information  of  the  period. 
After  solemn  prayer,  Nye  ascended  the  pulpit,  and  addressed  the 
audience  in  a  prolonged  speech,  in  which  he  exhibited  the  scrip- 
tural authority  for  covenants,  and  dilated  on  their  advantages. 
Henderson  followed,  in  a  shorter  speech,  but  one  described  as  pos- 
sessing "  great  dignity  and  power."  Nye  then  read  the  covenant. 
The  document  is  too  long  to  be  here  quoted  at  large,  but  its  con- 
tents are  well  known.  It  was  a  pledge  that  those  entering  into  it 
would  preserve  ''  the  reformed  religion  in  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
in  doctrine,  worship,  discipline,  and  government ; "  and  would 
"  endeavor  to  bring  the  churches  of  God  in  the  three  kingdoms  to 
the  nearest  conjunction  and  uniformity  in  religion ; "  that  they  would 
"  endeavor  the  extirpation  of  popery,  prelacy,  superstition,  heresy, 
schism,  profaneness,  and  whatsoever  shall  be  found  contrary  to 
sound  doctrine  and  the  power  of  godliness ;  "  that  they  would 
preserve  the  rights  of  the  parliament,  the  liberties  of  the  kingdom, 
and  the  king's  majesty;  that  they  would  endeavor  to  discover 
malignant?,  and  those  who  hindered  the  reformation  of  religion ; 
that  they  would  be  at  peace  with  each  other ;  and  that  they  would 
amend  their  lives,  and  give  an  example  of  real  reformation. 
"  And  this  covenant  we  make  in  the  presence  of  Almighty  God, 
the  searcher  of  hearts,  with  a  true  intention  to  perform  the  same, 
as  we  shall  answer  at  that  great  day,  when  the  secrets  of  all  hearts 
shall  be  disclosed,"  &c.  &c.  At  the  end  of  each  clause  of  this 
covenant,  the  whole  assembly  arose  and  lifted  up  their  right  hand 
to  heaven.  They  afterwards  appended,  in  the  chancel,  their 
names  to  the  oath.  The  covenant  was  afterwards  taken  by  both 
houses  of  parliament,  and  by  various  congregations  in  and  around 
London.  The  House  of  Commons  ordained  that  it  should  be 
sworn  to  by  all  persons  in  England  above  the  age  of  eighteen ;  and 
that  those  who  refused  to  take  it  should  be  disqualified  from 


AIMINGS   AT   THE   IMPOSSIBLE.  161 

becoming  common  councilraen  of  the  city,  or  from  voting  for  sucli 
officers.  It  was  a  part  of  the  conditions  necessary  for  ordination, 
and  for  holding  any  post,  military  or  civil.  The  historian  of  the 
free  church  says  that  the  league  and  covenant  was  too  good  for  the 
age.  We  believe  the  garment  to  have  been  too  small  to  be  adapted 
to  men  whose  opinions  must  necessarily  differ.  It  was  like  a 
straight  waistcoat  upon  energetic  spiritual  action.  Men  will  never 
go  to  solemn  leagues  and  covenants  again.  Religion  proved  incom- 
prehensible by  such  a  mould;  —  not  worldly  enough  for  a  machine 
of  state,  and  not  spiritual  enough  for  earnest  and  heaven-born 
men,  it  exploded  in  the  hands  of  its  workmen,  and  hundreds  of 
them  were  wounded  by  its  fragments. 

The  first  place  in  which  this  assembly  met  was  Henry  VII.'s 
Chapel  at  Westminster.  As  the  winter  came  on,  they  transferred 
their  sittings  to  a  less  splendid,  but  more  venerable  and  more  con- 
venient apartment. 

The  visitor  to  the  abbey  who  stands  at  its  western  front,  oppo- 
site to  the  two  towers  erected  by  Wren,  may  mark  a  small  knot 
of  buildings,  insignificant  when  compared  with  the  church  itself, 
abutting  on  the  south  tower.  One  of  these,  the  window  of  which 
is  defended  by  wire,  still  bears  the  name  of  the  Jerusalem  cham- 
ber. It  was  erected  in  the  reigns  of  Edward  III.  and  Richard  I. 
The  chamber  is  thirty-eight  feet  long  and  nineteen  broad,  with  a 
coved  ceiling,  and  a  handsome  mantel-piece  of  cedar,  erected  in 
the  reign  of  James  I.  Its  side-walls  exliibit  some  old  tapestry 
hangings,  removed  from  the  choir  of  the  abbey,  and  a  curious 
painting  of  Richard  II. ;  a  colored  window  mitigates  and  tinges 
the  light  of  day.  The  room  is  memorable  as  the  death-place  of 
Henry  lY.,  who,  when  preparing  for  a  voyage  to  the  Holy  Land, 
was  taken  sick  whilst  worshipping  at  the  shrine  of  St.  Edward. 
"  He  became  so  syke,"  says  Fabian,  "  while  he  was  makynge  his 
prayers,  to  take  there  his  leve,  and  so  to  spede  hyra  upon  his  jour- 
neye,  that  such  as  were  aboute  him  feryd  that  he  would  have  dyed 
right  there ;  wherefore  they,  for  his  comforte,  bare  hym  into  the 
abbot's  place  and  lodged  him  in  a  chamber,  and  there,  upon  a  pay- 
14# 


162 


AIMINGS    AT    THE    IMPOSSIBLE. 


let,  leyde  him  before  the  iyre."  He  asked  where  he  was,  and  on 
being  told  the  Jerusalem  Chamber,  he  imagined  it  to  be  the  ful- 
filment of  a  previous  prophecy  that  he  should  die  in  Jerusalem. 

•'  Laud  be  to  Heaven  !  —  even  there  my  life  must  end. 
It  hath  been  prophesied  to  nie  many  years 
I  should  not  die  but  in  Jerusalem, 
AVhich  vainly  I  supposed  the  Holy  Land  !  " 

Shakspearje,  Henry  IV.,  Part  11. 

It  was  in  this  chamber,  also,  that  Addison's  body  lay  in  state 
before  his  funeral  in  Westminster  Abbey. 


JEnUSALEXr   CHAMBER. 


Baillie,  one  of  the  Scottish  commissioners,  now  arrived  in  Lon- 
don, shall  himself  describe  tlie  assembly  as  it  sat  in  this  building : 

"At  the  one  end  nearest  the  door,  and  along  both  sides,  are 
stages  of  seats,  as  in  the  new  assembly  house  at  Edinburgh,  but  not 
so  high  ;  for  there  will  be  room  but  for  five  or  six  score.  At  the 
uppermost  en.l  there  is  a  chair  set  on  a  frame,  a  foot  from  the 
earth,  for  the  ]Mr.  Prolocutor,  Dr.  Twisse.  Before  it,  on  the 
ground,  stand  two  chairs  for  the  two  Mr.  Assessors,  Dr.  Burgess 
and  Mr.  White.     Before   these  two   chairs,  through   the  whole 


AIMINGS    AT    THE    IMPOSSIBLE.  163 

length  of  tlie  room,  stands  a  table,  at  which  sit  the  two  scribes. 
^  "^  Opposite  the  table,  upon  the  prolocutor's  right  hand,  there 
are  three  or  four  ranks  of  benches.  On  the  lowest  we  five  do  sit. 
Upon  the  other,  at  our  backs,  the  members  of  parliament  deputed  to 
the  assembly.  On  the  benches  opposite  to  us,  on  the  prolocutor's 
left  hand,  going  from  the  upper  end  of  the  house  to  the  chimney, 
and  at  the  other  end  of  the  house  and  back  of  the  table,  till  it 
come  about  to  our  seats,  are  four  or  five  stages  of  benches,  upon 
which  their  divines  sit  as  they  please  :  albeit,  commonly  they  keep 
the  same  place.  From  the  chimney  to  the  door  there  are  no 
seats,  but  a  void  space  for  passage.  The  lords  of  the  parliament 
use  to  sit  on  chairs,  in  that  void,  about  the  fire.  We  meet  every 
day  of  the  week  but  Saturday.  We  sit  commonly  from  nine  till 
one  or  two  afternoon.  =^  ^  No  man  is  called  up  to  speak ;  but 
whosoever  stands  up  of  his  own  accord  speaks  as  long  as  he  will 
without  interruption.  '^  '^  They  study  the  questions  well 
beforehand,  and  prepare  their  speeches ;  but  withal  the  men  are 
exceedingly  prompt  and  well-spoken.  I  do  marvel  at  the  very 
accurate  and  extemporal  replies  that  many  of  them  usually  make." 

At  this  period  the  Scottish  counnissioncrs  were  the  lions  of  Lon- 
don. They  were  feted,  consulted  with  the  utmost  deference,  and 
their  preaching  was  attended  by  such  crowds,  that  many  retired 
unable  to  obtain  an  entrance. 

Soon  after  the  assembly  of  divines  was  constituted,  it,  with  the 
members  of  both  houses  of  parliament,  was  invited  to  a  great  feast 
by  the  Lord  Mayor  and  Sheriffs  at  "  Taylor's  Hall."  This  was  a 
grand  occasion.  A  sermon  of  thanksgiving  was  preached  in  the 
morning  by  Stephen  Marshall.  The  guests  then  walked  in  pro- 
cession to  Taylor's  Hall  in  the  following  order :  first,  the  common 
council  in  their  gowns ;  next,  the  mayor  and  aldermen  in  scarlet 
on  horseback.  After  these  the  general,  admiral  .and  lords,  with 
officers  of  the  army,  on  foot.  Then  followed  the  House  of  Com- 
mons and  the  assembly  of  divines.  It  was  arranged  that  the  Scot- 
tish commissioners  should  come  between  the  commons  and  the 
assembly  ;    "  but,"  says  one  of  them,  "  my  Lord  Maitland  being 


164  AIMINGS    AT   THE    IMPOSSIBLE. 

drawn  away  to  the  lords,  and  we  not  loving  to  take  our  place 
before  all  the  divines  of  England,  stole  away  to  pur  coatch ;  and 
when  there  was  no  way  for  coatehes,  for  throng  of  people,  we 
went  on  foot,  with  great  difficultie,  through  hudge  crowdings  of 
people.  While  all  past  throu  Cheapside,  there  was  a  great  bou- 
fyre  kindled,  where  the  rich  Cross  wont  to  stand,  of  manie  fyne 
pictures  of  Christ  and  the  saints,  of  relicks,  beads,  and  such  trin- 
kets. The  feast  was  great,  valued  at  four  thousands  pounds  sterling ; 
yet  had  no  desert,  nor  musick,  but  drums  and  trumpets.  In  the 
great  laigh  hall  were  four  tables  for  the  lords  and  commons.  The 
mayor  at  the  head  of  the  chiefe  in  ane  upper  roome.  Two  long 
tables  for  the  divines ;  at  the  head  of  the  which  we  were  sett, 
with  their  proloquutor.  All  was  concluded  with  a  psalme,  whereof 
Dr.  Burgess  read  the  line.  There  was  no  excess  in  any  we  heard 
of.  The  speaker  of  the  commons  house  drank  to  the  lords,  in 
name  of  all  the  commons  of  England.  The  lords  stood  all  up, 
everie  one  with  his  glass,  for  they  represent  none  but  themselves, 
and  drank  to  the  commons.  The  mayor  drank  to  both  in  name  of 
the  citie.  The  sword-bearer,  with  his  strong  cap  of  main tai nance 
still  fixed  on  his  head,  came  to  us  with  the  mayor's  drink."  =^ 

We  have  seen  that  ten  weeks  were  spent  by  this  assembly  in 
discussing  the  thirty-nine  articles.  Before,  however,  this  debate 
was  ended,  an  order  came  from  both  houses  of  parliament  request- 
ing their  immediate  attention  to  the  subjects  of  discipline  and  a 
directory  of  worship.  This  was  in  reality  the  great  purpose  of 
their  meeting.  After  a  day  of  solemn  fasting  and  prayer,  they 
agreed  to  take  up  the  subject  of  church  government ;  and,  to 
avoid  any  unnecessary  difierences  of  opinion  at  the  outset,  they 
began  with  church  ofiScers.  Various  debates  followed,  in  the  midst 
of  which  the  parliament,  embarrassed  by  these  delays,  sent  a  mes- 
sage requesting  a  speedy  decision  respecting  two  points, —  the  ordi- 
nation of  ministers  and  induction  into  vacant  benefices.  (It  was 
now  October.)     Ministers,  regular  and  irregular,  deprived  by  the 

•BaUUo,  Feb.  18,  1644. 


AIMINGS    AT    THE   IMPOSSIBLE.  165 

tyranny  of  Laud,  were  starving,  and  asked  to  be  replaced  or  main 
tained ;  and  the  great  difficulty  pressed  upon  the  assembly  how  to 
deal  with  those  whom  they  might  account  regular,  so  as  not  to  do 
flagrant  injustice  to  those  whose  tenets  they  accounted  heretical. 
An  impossible  equation  truly  !  though  some  attempt  was  made  to 
solve  it.  Then  came  the  questions  of  ordination  and  discipline, 
debates  on  which  lasted  till  the  end  of  the  year.  Parliament 
became  more  impatient ;  the  assembly  was  required  to  make  more 
haste !  But  this  was  not  so  easy.  A  body  of  independents,  consist- 
ing of  Philip  Nye,  Thomas  Goodwin,  D.D.  (not  to  be  confounded 
with  John  Goodwin),  Sydrach  Simpson,  Jeremiah  Burroughes,  and 
William  Bridge  (called  "the  five  dissenting  brethren"),  with  a 
few  others,  proved  themselves,  according  to  the  views  of  the  Scot- 
tish commissioners,  extremely  troublesome  and  pertinacious.  It 
was  April  before  the  assembly,  having  long  dwelt  upon  the  doc- 
trinal part  of  ordination,  came  to  consider  the  manner  in  which 
it  should  be  conducted.  When  this  was  settled  by  a  majority  of 
votes,  and  the  report  presented  to  parliament,  that  superior  assem- 
bly altered  certain  parts  of  it  likely  to  prove  oifensive  to  the  lead- 
ing sectaries,  and  sent  it  back  amended  to  the  assembly,  who 
refused  to  receive  it.  The  remonstrances  of  the  convocation  caused 
it  to  be  restored  to  the  condition  in  which  they  had  presented  it ; 
and  it  thus  became  the  law  of  the  land,  a  committee  being  ap- 
pointed for  the  ordination  of  ministers,  consisting  of  ten  of  the 
assembly  with  thirteen  city  ministers. 

But  rocks  and  quicksands  of  every  variety  yet  beset  the  course 
of  these  theological  navigators,  sailing  in  search  of  a  land  of  happy 
uniformity.  Defeated  in  voting,  the  independent  party  made  use 
of  the  press.  "  Foreseeing,"  says  Baillie,  "  they  behoved  ere  long 
to  come  to  the  point,  they  put  out,  in  print,  on  a  sudden,  an  Apol- 
ogetical  Narration  of  their  way,  which  long  had  lain  ready  beside 
them,  wherein  they  petition  the  parliament,  in  a  most  sly  and  cun- 
ning way,  for  a  toleration  ;  and  withal  lend  too  bold  wipes  to  all 
the  reformed  churches,  as  imperfect  yet  in  their  reformation,  till 
their  new  model  be  embraced."     In  this  publication,  undeserving 


166  AIMINGS   AT   THE    IMPOSSIBLE. 

of  Baillie's  censure,  the  writers  state  their  own  suiferings  for  the 
sake  of  the  truth ;  avow  their  wish  to  stand  only  by  the  Word  of 
God ;  acknowledge  "  multitudes  of  the  assemblies  and  parochial 
congregations "  (of  the  Church  of  England)  to  be  "  the  true 
churches  and  body  of  Christ,  and  the  ministry  thereof  to  be  a 
true  ministry,"  "  and  that  they  had  held,  and  would  hold,  com- 
munion with  them  as  the  churches  of  Christ,"  &c.  Calm  and 
dignified  as  this  publication  was,  it  irritated  the  opposite  party 
almost  into  frenzy,  and  upon  this  rock  the  whole  vessel  afterwards 
became  irrecoverably  stranded.  A  sharp  and  somewhat  acri- 
monious conflict  began,  in  the  midst  of  which,  the  battle  of  Marston- 
moor  having  been  now  gained,  an  order  of  the  commons  reached 
the  assembly,  "  to  refer  to  the  committee  of  both  kingdoms  the 
accommodation  or  toleration  of  the  independents."  "  This,"  says 
Baillie,  "  is  the  fruit  of  their  disservice,  to  obtain  really  an  act  of 
parliament  for  their  toleration,  before  we  have  got  anything  for 
presbytery,  either  in  assembly  or  parliament." 

It  is  evident  that,  however  defective  the  views  of  the  independ- 
ents might  be,  they  were  considerably  in  advance  of  the  assembly 
in  general.  Yet  they  distinctly  acknowledged  the  power  of  the 
magistrate  in  backing  the  sentences  of  the  various  churches,  and 
say  that  to  hold  an  exemption  from  the  power  of  the  civil  magis- 
trate is  dishonorable  to  Christianity ;  whilst  they  disclaimed  the 
notion  of  a  national  church  in  any  other  sense  than  as  a  collection 
of  individual  congregational  bodies,^  and  claimed  the  right  of 
"  gathering  churches,"  though  out  of  the  members  of  other  com- 
munions, —  a  demand  necessarily  fatal  to  the  scheme  of  a  general 
uniformity.  Such  were  the  views  propounded  in  the  "  Apologet- 
ical  Narration." 

To  follow  the  debates  of  this  famous  convocation  through  all  the 
points  which  came  under  its  notice  is,  within  our  limits,  impossible. 
Cynically  enough,  yet  truly,  Carlyle  thus  describes  it :  •'  Uniform- 
ity of  free-growing,  healthy  forest-trees  is  good ;  uniformity  of 

*  Hetherington's  Westminster  Assembly,  p.  201. 


AIMINGS   AT    THE    IMPOSSIBLE.  167 

dipt  Dutck-dragons  is  not  so  good  !  The  question,  Which  of  the 
two  ?  is  by  no  means  settled,  —  though  the  assembly  of  divines 
and  majorities  of  both  houses  would  fain  think  it  so.  The  general 
English  mind,  which,  loving  good  order  in  all  things,  loves  regu- 
larity even  at  a  high  price,  could  be  content  with  this  presbyterian 
scheme,  which  we  call  the  Dutch-dragon  one ;  but  a  deeper  portion 
of  the  English  mind  inclines  decisively  to  growing  in  the  forest- 
tree  way,  —  and,  indeed,  will  shoot  out  into  very  singular  excres- 
cences, quakerisms,  and  what  not,  in  the  coming  years.  Nay, 
already  we  have  anabaptists,  Brownists,  sectaries  and  schismatics, 
springing  up  very  rife ;  already  there  is  a  Paul  Best,  brought  before 
the  House  of  Commons  for  Socinianism  ;  nay,  we  hear  of  another 
distracted  individual,  who  seemed  to  maintain,  in  confidential  argu- 
ment, that  •  God  was  mere  reason.'  There  is  like  to  be  need  of 
garden-shears,  at  this  rate  !  The  devout  House  of  Commons,  view- 
ing these  things  with  a  horror  inconceivable  in  our  loose  days, 
knows  not  well  what  to  do.  London  city  cries  —  'Apply  the 
shears  ! ' —  the  army  answers, '  Apply  them  gently;  cut  off  nothing 
that  is  sound.'  The  question  of  garden-shears,  and  how  far  you  are 
to  apply  them,  is  really  difficult;  —  the  settling  of  it  will  lead  to 
very  unexpected  results.  London  city  knows  with  pain  that  there 
are  *many  persons  in  the  army  who  have  never  yet  taken  the 
covenant,'  the  army  begins  to  consider  it  unlikely  that  certain  of 
them  ever  will  take  it."  =^^ 

It  is  very  clear  that  in  this  assembly  the  independent  party 
argued  for  a  more  complete  toleration  than  had  been  yet  seen,  or 
than  theif  opponents  were  at  all  willing  to  grant.  "  People  in  the 
country,"  —  as  distinguished  from  those  in  London,  —  says  Baillie, 
"  complained  that  the  assembly  did  cry  down  the  truth  with  votes, 
and  was  but  an  anti-christian  meeting,  which  would  soon  erect  a 
presbytery  worse  than  bishops."  Nye  contended  strongly  against 
presbyterial  church  government.  Baillie  says,  "  The  day  follow- 
ing, when  he  saw  the  assembly  full  of  the  prime  nobles  and  chief 
members  of  both  houses,  he  did  fall  upon  the  argument  again,  and 

*  Carlyle's  Cromwell,  vol.  i.,  pp.  341,  342. 


168  AI31INGS   AT    THE   IMPOSSIBLE. 

boldly  offered  to  demonstrate  that  our  way  of  drawing  a  whole 
kingdom  under  one  national  assembly  was  formidable,  yea,  perni- 
cious, and  thrice  over  pernicious  to  civil  states  and  kingdoms.  All 
cried  him  down,  and  some  would  have  had  him  expelled  the 
assemblj^  as  seditious."  Again,  "  Our  next  work  is  to  give  our 
advice  what  to  do  for  the  suppression  of  anabaptists,  antinomians, 
and  other  sectaries."  "  The  independents,  in  their  last  meeting  of 
our  grand  committee  of  accommodation,  have  expressed  their  desires 
for  toleration,  not  only  to  themselves,  but  to  other  sects." 

It  is  equally  clear,  however,  that  the  toleration  which  these  five 
"  dissenting  brethren "  advocated  so  strongly  was  not  a  perfect 
equality  in  matters  of  religious  opinion. 

In  a  treatise  entitled  "  Irenicum ;  to  the  Lovers  of  Truth  and 
Peace,"  written  evidently  after  these  agitations  of  this  Westminster 
Assembly,  Jeremiah  Burroughes  (one  of  the  five)  says : 

"  But  for  all  that  hath  been  siiid,  are  there  not  yet  a  sort  of 
men  who  though  they  would  colour  over  things,  and  put  faire 
glosses  upon  their  opinion  and  wayes,  saying  they  would  not  have 
such  an  absolute  liberty  as  to  have  all  religions  suffered,  yet  doe 
they  not  come  near  this  in  their  tenets  and  practice  ?  Doe  not 
men  in  a  congregational  way  take  away  all  ecclesiastical  means  that 
should  hinder  such  an  absolute  liberty  as  this  ?  for  they  hold, 
every  congregation  hath  sole  \jovfcr  within  itself,  and  they  are  not 
tyed  to  give  any  account  to  others,  but  merely  in  an  arbitrary 
way.  Will  not  this  bring  in  a  toleration  of  all  religions^  and  a 
very  anarchy  ? 

"  First :  I  know  none  holds  this  ;  and  how  farre  men  in  a  con- 
gregationall  way  are  from  it  shall  appetir  presently."  He  then 
shows  "  wherein  consists  tlie  power  of  the  magistrate  in  matters 
of  religion,"  and  that  "  they  which  are  for  a  congregationall  way 
doe  not  hold  absolute  liberty  for  all  religions."  He  adduces  the 
examples  of  eJewish  worship,  in  support  of  the  doctrine  that  it  is 
the  province  of  the  magistrate  to  interpose,  though  not  in  all 
cases ;  and  says,  "  I  doe  not  in  these  deliver  only  mine  owne 
judgement,  but  by  what  I  know  of  the  judgements  of  all  those 


AIMINGS   AT   THE    IMPOSSIBLE.  169 

brethren  with  whom  I  have  occasion  to  converse  by  conference, 
both  before  and  since  :  I  stand  charged  to  make  it  good  to  be  their 
judgments  also ;  yea,  it  hath  been  both  their's  and  mine  for  divers 
years,"  ^  &c.  This,  from  one  of  the  "  five  brethren,"  is  surely 
decisive. 

Some  of  the  mistakes  on  this  point  have  evidently  arisen  from 
confounding  the  name  of  Dr.  Thomas  Goodwin  with  that  of  John 
Goodwin,  of  Coleman  Street,  The  latter  published  a  work  arising 
out  of  the  "  Apologetical  Narration,"  which  proves  him,  says  Baillie, 
"  to  be  a  bitter  enemie  to  presbytery,  and  to  be  openly  for  a  full 
liberty  of  conscience  to  all  sects,  even  Turks,  Jews,  papists." 
Again :  "  The  independents  here,  finding  they  have  not  the  magis- 
trate so  obsequious  as  in  New  England,  turn  their  penns,  as  you 
will  see  in  MS."  (John  Goodwin),  "  to  take  from  the  magistrate 
all  power  of  taking  any  coercive  order  with  the  vilest  heretics. 
Not  only  they  praise  your  magistrate,  who  for  secret  policie  gives 
some  secret  toUerance  to  diverse  religions,  wherein,  as  I  conceive, 
your  divines  preache  against  them  as  great  sinners ;  but  avows  by 
God's  command,  the  magistrate  is  discharged  to  put  the  least  dis- 
courtesie  on  any  man,  Turk,  Jew,  papist,  Socinian,  or  whatever, 
for  his  religion.  I  wish  Apollonius  t  considered  this  well.  The 
Jive  he  tvrites  to  will  Tiot  say  this  ;  but  MS.  (John  Goodwin)  is 
of  as  great  authoritie  here  as  any  of  them."  t 

In  a  work  published  by  Baillie,  a  year  or  two  later,  he  refers  to 
the  same  John  Goodwin's  "  Theomachia,"  and  quotes  the  following 


"  Concerning  other  civil  means  for  the  suppression  and  restraint 
of  these  spiritual  evils,  errours,  heresies,  &c.,  as  imprisonment, 
banishment,  interdictions,  fineings,  &c.,  both  reaiBon  and  experience 
concur  in  this  demonstration,  that  such  fetters  as  these,  put  on  the 

*  Burroughes'  Irenicum,  pp.  18,  44. 

f  Apollonius  wrote  a  book  entitled  "  A  Consideration  of  Certain  Controversies 
agitated  in  the  Kingdom  of  England  ;"  he  sent  from  the  Wallachian  churches 
to  declare  the  sense  and  consent  of  their  churches  to  the  Synod  at  Ijondon,  1G45, 

X  Baillie's  Letters. 

15 


170  AIMINGS    AT   THE   IMPOSSIBLE. 

feet  of  errors  and  heresies,  to  secure  and  keep  thera  under,  still 
have  proved  wings  whereby  they  i-aise  themselves  the  higher  in 
the  thoughts  and  minds  of  men,  and  gain  an  opportunity  of  further 
propagation." 

So  far  was  the  generality,  even  of  men  of  the  most  expanded 
minds,  from  apprehending  the  true  principles  of  religious  freedom 
at  this  period,  tSat  Milton  himself,  though  a  noble  defender  of 
religious  toleration  in  general,  places  exceptions  to  its  universal 
extension,  Nnd  regards  Romanism  and  idolatry  as  not  to  be  com- 
prised in  its  ])enefits.=^  The  exceptions  taken  in  those  days  excite 
our  regret,  rather  than  our  wonder.  Sir  Harry  Yane,  taught  by 
Roger  Williams,  appears  to  have  been  the  only  one  in  the  assembly 
who  asssertel  anything  like  consistent  sentiments.  He  pleaded 
for  "  a  full  libertie  of  conscience  to  all  religions,"  and  opposed  the 
clause  which  required  subscription  to  the  covenant  before  ordina- 
tion.t  To  the  anabaptists,  as  they  were  then  termed,  the  high 
praise  is  due,  that  at  this  period  and  before  it  they  had  been  clear 
in  the  principle,  "  that  it  is  not  only  unmerciful,  but  unnatural  and 
abominable,  yea,  monstrous,  for  one  Christian  to  vex  and  destroy 
another  for  difference  on  questions  of  religion."  t  They  asked  again, 
"  Whether  it  be  not  better  for  us  that  a  patent  were  granted  to 
monopolize  all  the  cloth  and  corn,  and  to  have  it  measured  out  unto 
us,  at  their  price  and  pleasure,  which  were  yet  intolerable,  as  for 
some  men  to  appoint  and  measure  out  to  us  what  and  how  much 
we  shall  believe  and  practise  in  matters  of  religion  ? "  "  If  the 
magistrate  must  punish  errors  in  religion,  whether  it  does  not 
impose  a  necessity  that  the  magistrate  have  a  certainty  of  knowl- 
edge in  all  intricate  cases  ?  And  whether  God  calls  such  to  that 
place  whom  he  hath  not  furnished  with  abilities  for  that  place  ? 
And  if  a  magistrate  in  diirkness,  and  spiritually  blind  and  dead,  be 

*  Seo  John  Milton  :  a  Biography.     By  Cyrus  R.  Edmonds, 
t  Baillie,  Oct.  25,  1644. 

X  Religion's  Peace  ;  or,  a  Plea  for  Liberty  of  Conscience.     Published  1646, 
with  a  preface  to  the  presbyterian  reader. 


AIMINGS    AT   THE   IMPOSSIBLE.  171 

fit  to  judge  of  light,  of  truth,  and  error  ?  And  whether  such  be 
fit  for  the  place  of  the  magistracy  ?  "  "^ 

Such  are  specimens  of  the  kind  of  questions  addressed  by  bap- 
tists to  the  consideration  of  the  Assembly  of  Divines,  at  the  period 
of  which  we  write. 

It  is  scarcely  surprising  that,  among  the  most  grievous  heresies 
of  the  day,  anabaptism  was  hence  regarded  as  of  singular  malignity. 
The  following  extract  from  a  title-page  of  the  period  will  speak 
for  itself: 


ANABAPTISME  THE  TRUE  FOUNTAINE 

OF 

INDEPENDENCY  ^         C  ANTINOMY 

BKOWNISME  5  C  FAMILISM 

AND   THE   MOST   OF   THE   OTHER   ERROURS 

WHICH   FOR   THE   TIME   DOK    TROUBLE 

THE   CHURCH   OP  ENGLAND,    UNSEALED, 

&c.,  &o.,   ice., 

BY  BOBEBT  BAILLIE,   MINISTER  AT  GLASGOW. 

1647. 

This  work,  dedicated  to  "  the  Right  Hon.  the  Earl  of  Lauder 
dail "  and  others,  is  an  attempt  to  confound  the  anabaptists  of  that 
day  with  the  abettors  of  the  outrages  and  abominations  of  Miinster. 
One  of  their  enormities  is  thus  held  up  to  horror,  —  •'  They  are  a 
people  very  zealous  of  liberty,  and  most  unwilling  to  bo  under  the 
bondage  of  any  other." 

It  is  easy  to  charge  upon  the  independent  members  of  this 
Westminster  Assembly  factiousness  and  crotchetiness.  It  is  inti- 
mated by  the  free-church  historian.  Dr.  Hetherington,  that  Nye 
and  his  brethren  were  introduced  by  the  intrigues  of  Cromwell 
purposely  to  thwart  the  progress  of  the  deliberations.  But  this  is 
entirely  gratuitous.  The  fact  evidently  was,  that  the  men  who  had 
originally  met  to  promote  a  protcstant  uniformity  found  themselves 

*  Necessity  of  Toleration  in  matters  of  Religion  :  Certain  Questions  proposed 
to  the  Synod,  Ac.     By  Samuel  Richardson,  1647. 


172  AIMINGS   AT   THE   IMPOSSIBLE. 

further  and  further,  as  the  discussion  advanced,  from  the  object 
they  sought.  The  justice  or'  diifering  chiims  opposed  the  course 
they  had  at  first  meditated.  Experience  taught  them  truth ;  they 
found  that  they  themselves  weie  on  the  brink  of  exclusion,  as 
afterwards  happened,  from  the  new  establishment ;  and  they 
plainly  saw  what  disastrous  effects  would  follow,  if  the  "  sectarian  " 
parties,  now  increased  and  increasing,  were  excluded  by  the  parlia- 
ment they  were  even  now  in  arms  to  support.  They  had  aimed  to 
form  an  establishment,  based,  to  some  extent,  on  the  voluntary 
consent  of  differing  parties.  It  was  like  extracting  "  sunbeams 
from  cucumbers."  The  effort  dislocated  the  puritan  party  ;  the 
presbyterians,  resolved  to  have  their  doctrine  and  discipline,  seized 
the  earliest  period  possible,  and  brought  in  their  covenanted  king ! 
The  history  of  what  the  Westminster  Assembly,  or  rather  the 
parliament  under  their  guidance,  did  accomplish,  must  be  briefly 
told.  They  suppressed  the  liturgy,  —  forbade  the  use  of  the  com- 
mon-prayer in  public  or  in  private,  under  the  penalty  of  five 
pounds  for  the  first  offence,  ten  pounds  for  the  second,  and  a  year's 
imprisonment  for  the  third.  They  set  up  a  directory  for  public 
worship,  according  to  the  presbyterial  model,  including  sitting  at 
the  communion,  and  burying  without  the  necessity  of  a  religious 
ceremony ;  and  imposed  a  fine  on  those  who  did  not  observe  this 
directory,  of  forty  shillings,  whilst  such  as  should  "  preach,  write, 
or  print  anything  in  derogation  of  it,"  forfeited  a  sum  of  not  less 
than  five  pounds,  nor  more  than  twenty  pounds.  They  ordered 
all  prayer-books  found  in  churches  to  be  disposed  of  according  to 
the  pleasure  of  parliament.  They  enforced  the  observance  of  the 
Sabbath,  ordaining  "  That  no  person,  without  cause,  shall  travel,  or 
carry  a  burden,  or  do  any  worldly  labor,  ujwn  j^enalty  of  ten 
shillings  for  the  traveller,  and  five  shillings  for  every  burden ; " 
and  "  if  children  are  found  offending  in  the  premises,  their  parents 
and  guardians  to  forfeit  twelve  pence  for  every  offence."  =*  They 
put  down  the  observance  of  Christmas,  by  a  special  decree,  which 
commanded  a  fast  in  its  stead ;  they  determined  "  what  degrees 

*  Neal,  ohap.  nr. 


AIMINGS    AT   TUE   IMPOSSIBLE.  173 

of  knowledge  in  the  Christian  religion  were  necessary  to  qualify 
persons  for  the  communion,  and  what  sorts  of  scandal  deserved 
suspension  or  excoramanication."  They  passed  a  presbyterian 
form  of  church  government,  "  as  narrow,"  says  Neal,  "  as  the  pre- 
latical ;  and  as  it  did  not  allow  a  liberty  of  conscience,  claiming  a 
civil  as  well  as  ecclesiastical  authority  over  men's  persons  and 
properties,  it  was  equally,  if  not  more  insuiferable."  =^  The 
Assembly  of  Divines  claimed  presbyterian  government  as  a  divine 
right,  and,  therefore,  independent  of  parliamentary  control ;  but 
this  the  parliament  would  not  acknowledge.  The  same  assembly 
denied  the  right  of  the  independents  to  form  separate  congregations, 
till  they  forced  the  moderate  Burroughes  to  declare,  on  behalf  of 
the  independents,  that,  "  if  their  congregations  nn'ght  not  be 
exempted  from  the  coercive  power  of  the  classes,  if  they  might 
not  have  liberty  to  govern  themselves  in  their  own  way  as  long  as 
they  behaved  peaceably  towards  the  civil  magistrate,  they  were 
resolved  to  suiFer,  or  go  to  some  other  place  of  the  world,  where 
they  might  enjoy  their  liberty."  Prynne  himself,  the  victim  of 
Laud,  declared,  "  that  if  the  parliament  and  synod  establish  pres- 
bytery, the  independents  and  all  others  are  bound  to  submit,  under 
pain  of  obstinacy."  But  the  debate  on  this  subject  was  never 
ended.  They  imprisoned  one  of  their  own  members,  Dr.  Featley, 
as  a  spy,  mainly  for  his  attachment  to  the  Church  of  England, 
sequestrated  his  livings,  and  he  died  in  their  hands.  They 
demanded  of  the  king  that  he  would  sign  the  covenant ;  confirm 
the  proceedings  of  the  Assembly  of  Divines ;  establish  an  oath 
whereby  papists  should  be  required  to  renounce  the  pope's  suprem- 
acy, provide  for  the  education  of  the  children  of  papists  by  prot- 
estants,  prevent  the  hearing  of  mass,  enforce  the  observance  of  the 
Lord's  day,  and  declare  those  who  had  taken  arms  against  the 
parliament  incapable  of  preferment  or  employment,  without  consent 
of  the  houses  of  legislature,  —  the  king  intriguing,  in  the  mean 
time,  with  the  independents  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  presbyterians 
on  ths  other.     They  abolished  "  archbishops  and  bishops,  and  for 

*  Neal,  chap.  vi. 
15^ 


174  AIMINQS    AT   THE   IMPOSSIBLE. 

bade  their  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  or  the  use  of  their  titles." 
They  denounced  lay-preachers,  and  published  an  ordinance  to  pre- 
vent "  the  growth  of  errors,  heresies  and  blasphemies ;"  they  author- 
ized the  larger  and  shorter  catechisms,  and  confession  of  faith,  and 
Rouse's  metrical  Psalms ;  they  declared  stage-players  punishable 
as  rogues,  and  decreed  that  they  should  be  publicly  whipped,  whilst 
all  spectators  should  be  fined  five  shillings  for  every  ofience ;  they 
proclaimed  that  any  person  holding  certain  heresies,  —  atheism, 
Socinianism,  universalism,  free-will,  quakerism,  &c.,  —  should  be, 
for  some  ofiences,  committed  to  prison,  and,  unless  he  abjured, 
should  sufier  the  pains  of  death ;  whilst  for  others,  he  should  be 
imprisoned  till  he  found  sureties  that  he  would  maintain  such 
doctrines  no  more  !     Such  was  presbyterian  uniformity  ! 

Many  baptists  were  exposed — among  them  Hanserd  Knollys — 
to  severe  persecutions,  were  stoned,  fined,  imprisoned  and  outraged. 
The  sufferings  of  the  episcopal  clergy  were  great.  Provision  was, 
indeed,  made  for  them  out  of  the  sales  of  lands  heretofore  in  the 
possession  of  bishops  and  chapters  of  cathedrals,  and  from  a  fifth  of 
tithes  and  livings ;  but  the  allowance  became  difficult,  and,  from 
their  suspected  monarchical  tendencies,  dangerous  to  be  procured. 
The  course  taken  against  Roman  Catholics  was  even  more  severe. 

Such  were  the  fruits  of  a  national  estiiblishment  which,  in  the 
first  instance,  presbyterians  and  independents  had  united  to  form ! 
The  lamentable  result  shows  that  the  evils  of  persecution  are  not 
justly  chargeable  upon  any  mere  opinions,  whether  episcopalian  or 
any  other,  but  upon  the  principle  of  state-alliance  itself.  That 
involves  so  monstrous  an  injustice,  as  to  metamorphose  the  best  of 
men  into  the  most  unrelenting.  Laud  himself,  when  his  actions 
are  fairly  put  by  the  side  of  his  principles,  was  not  so  bad  as  he 
seemed ;  and  it  was  not  wonderful  that  these  really  good  men 
should,  when  judged  by  the  same  standard  as  that  which  was 
applied  to  him,  appear,  though  none  ever  less  deserved  the  charge, 
self-seekers  and  hypocrites.  It  is  the  infallible  effect  of  jx)wer 
used  for  spiritual  purposes,  that  it  contaminates  and  degrades  the 
men  who  use  it.    We  can  no  more  apologize  for  the  conduct  of  the 


AIMINGS    AT    THE   IMPOSSIBLE. 


175 


Long  Parliament,  than  we  can  for  the  burning  of  Servetus,  the 
sufferings  of  Bartholomew-day,  or  the  horrors  of  the  inquisition. 
The  degrees  of  penalty  might  differ  ;  the  substantial  principle  was 
the  same. 

The  assembly  of  divines  dwindled  away,  after  the  business  of  the 
committee  of  accommodation,  till  the  death  of  the  king.  A  frag- 
ment of  it  remained  after  that  period,  for  the  examination  of  min- 
isters. The  dissolution  of  the  Long  Parliament  was  at  hand,  and 
the  convocation  perished  with  it.     It  was  high  time  ! 

The  Earl  of  Manchester  was  deputed  by  the  House  of  Lords,  at 
some  time  hereafter,  to  congratulate  Charles  II.  on  his  return. 

Philip  Nye  was  very  prominent  in  political  movements  during 
the  period  of  the  commonwealth.  When  commissioners  were 
appointed  to  treat  with  the  king  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  Nye  was 
one  of  their  chaplains;  and  when  the  citizens  of  London  were 
actively  endeavoring  to  procure  a  treaty  with  the  king,  he  endeav- 
ored by  a  counter-petition  to  prevent  it.  Nye  was  one  of  the  Triers 
for  appointing  ministers,  and  is  represented  as  having  a  living  at 
Acton,  and  lectures  in  Westminster  and  London.  He  opposed  the 
return  of  Charles,  and  it  was  for  some  time  questioned  whether  he 
should  be  excepted  from  the  king's  indulgence.  Nye  drew  up  a 
complete  history  of  the  old  puritan  dissenters,  but  the  manuscript 
was  burnt  in  the  fire  of  London.  After  the  Restoration,  he 
preached  to  a  church  who  met  chiefly  in  private  houses,  till  the 
indulgence  granted  by  Charles  11.  He  died  in  September,  1672, 
aged  seventy-six,  and  was  buried  in  St.  Michael's,  Cornhill. 


JENNY  GEDDES'    CUTTY   STOOL. 


»*^  0?  THE      *■  vji. 


CHAPTEK    VI. 

THE    CKOWNLESS    MONARCH. 

"  Strongest  of  mortal  men  ! 
•  *  *  His  fiery  virtue  roused 
From  uqder  ashes  into  sudden  flame  !  " 

Samson  Agonistes, 


mmriNGDON. —  THis  birth-place  of  cromwbll. 


The  "  whirligig  of  time,"  which  "  brings  about  its  revenges," 
has  within  the  last  two  years  restored  the  town  of  Huntingdon  to 
its  ancient  place  on  the  great  north  road.  When  stage-coaches 
began  to  mend  their  pace,  and  to  ceaso  to  stop  on  their  journey,  it 


THE   CROWNLESS   MONARCH.  177 

was  of  some  consequence  to  avoid  the  angle  which  the  road  made 
at  that  point,  and  Huntingdon  was  dispossessed  of  its  pride  of 
place,  till  the  Great  Northern  Railway  was  recently  brought 
through  it.  Yet  Huntingdon  boasts  of  some  antiquity.  It  was 
one  of  the  head-quarters  of  the  Iceni,  —  possibly  of  the  ancient 
British  queen,  Boadicea,  herself;  its  "castle  hills"  were  probably 
the  site  of  the  fortress  which  gave  to  the  Durilijx)nte  of  Antoninus, 
afterwards  called,  in  Saxon,  Godmanchester  (Good-man's-castle), 
its  importance ;  and  its  name  occurs  in  Saxon  chronicles  as  Hun- 
tandene,  and  sometimes  as  Huntantum.  Henry  of  Huntingdon 
lived  here,  and  Edward  the  Elder  rebuilt,  near  the  town,  a  castle 
given  by  Stephen  to  David,  Ecirl  of  Huntingdon  and  King  of  Scot- 
land, of  which  the  intrenchments  remain,  though  the  building  was 
destroyed  by  Henry  II.,  as  affording  too  safe  a  retreat  to  his  dis- 
affected barons.  In  subsequent  times,  when  the  steam-engine  was 
a  mere  toy  in  the  hands  of  the  Marquis  of  Worcester,  when  delays 
in  travelling  were  as  much  sought  as  they  are  now  avoided,  that 
passengers  might  repose  their  bodies,  bruised  by  the  jolting  and  ill- 
managed  roads,  and  refresh  their  exhausted  frames ;  when  night 
journeys  were  full  of  dangers,  and  the  passage  from  York  to  Lon- 
don was  measured  but  by  days ;  Huntingdon  formed  a  convenient 
resting-place,  and  abounded  in  inns,  after  the  model  then  most 
approved,  replete  with  all  conveniences  which  the  luxury  of  the 
times  could  furnish. 

Huntingdon  has  now  lost  much  of  its  ancient  prestige.  Its 
monasteries  are  dismantled,  and  their  localities  almost  unknown : 
instead  of  the  fifteen  churches  once  standing  in  it,  it  now  boasts 
only  two  ;  and  the  hospitals  which  formerly  distinguished  it  have 
altogether  disappeared.  Nor  will  the  traveller  be  attracted  to  the 
town  by  any  very  picturesque  environs.  On  one  side  of  the  river 
Ouse,  there  are,  indeed,  gentle  and  agreeable  undulations,  though 
they  are  deserving  of  no  higher  name,  and  the  foliage  of  several 
respectable  trees  is  full  and  luxuriant.  But  the  traveller  who 
stands  on  the  ancient  bridge  with  his  back  to  the  town,  and  looks 


178  THK   CROWN LKSS    MOXAKCH. 

out  on  the  expanse  before  him,  may  begin  to  understand  what  is 
meant  by  the  phrase,  so  mysterious  to  the  uninitiated,  the  fens. 
He  will  see  a  kind  of  Sahara,  in  which  the  fault,  however,  is  not 
too  little  water,  but  too  much,  and  out  of  which  a  few  distant 
churches  stand  up  as  land-marks.  Through  this  level  the  river 
"  creeping  like  snail,"  slowly  saunters  along  ;  and  if  its  waters  do 
contrive  to  reach  the  sea  near  Lynn,  it  is  by  dint  of  more  means 
and  appliances  than  we  can  now  stay  to  record.  It  was  some  sim- 
ilar region  to  that  now  within  sight  that  a  celebrated  preacher 
called  "  the  focus  of  suicides ;"  and  the  few  willows  scattered  in 
groups  over  the  wide  flat  correspond  sufficiently  to  his  similitude 
of  "  nature  hanging  out  signals  of  distress."  Certainly,  if  there 
be  any  poetry  on  this  side  of  the  town,  it  is  such  as  only  Cowper, 
who  for  some  time  resided  here,  could  have  found ;  and  but  that 
"  the  blue  sky,"  always  beautiful,  "  bends  over  all,"  one  may  well 
wonder  at  the  interest  awakened  in  some  whom  we  have  known 
by  the  view.  If  great  thoughfe  have  ever  come  into  minds  in  this 
region,  they  must  have  arisen  from  interior  inspiration,  not  by  any 
natural  and  obvious  association  with  the  scenes  themselves.  But 
one  great  name  is  prominent  in  the  history  of  this  heretofore 
celebrated  town,  a  name  long  cast  out  as  worthless,  but  now 
believed  to  be  not  wholly  a  lie ;  and  the  whole  region  is  memo- 
rable for  having  produced  a  phenomenon,  regarded  once  as  a  mere 
flashing  meteor  which  had  passed  away  into  darkness,  but  now, 
in  spite  of  Heylins  and  Clarendons,  and  Heaths  and  Humes, 
and  house-of-parliament  decorators,  proved  to  have  had  an  orbit 
of  its  own,  and  to  have  been,  nay,  yet  to  be,  one  of  the  superior 
planets  of  our  system.  Need  we  pronounce  the  name  of  Crom- 
well ? 

But  it  is  not  at  Huntingdon  that  the  visitant  will  discover  any 
enthusiastic  memory  of  that  remarkable  man,  or  even  many  traces 
of  his  whereabouts.  Except  the  bridge,  a  few  ancient  gateways, 
the  two  surviving  churches,  and  one  or  two  scattered  and  moulder- 
ing fragments  besides,  there  is  little  to  feed  an  antiquarian's  curi- 


THE   CROWNLESS   MONARCH.  l79 

osity.  Something  about  the  whole  town,  indeed,  reminds  one  of 
the  past.  But  this  is  owing  rather  to  the  narrowness  of  the  streets, 
and  the  projecting  upper  stories  of  the  houses,  than  to  any  actual 
antiquity  in  the  buildings.  The  majesty  of  Huntingdon,  if  it  ever 
had  any,  is  faded  away. 

Passing  through  the  single  street  of  which  this  now  quiet  coun- 
try town  is  composed,  and  leaving  behind  us  the  area  called  the 
market-place,  we  reach,  after  a  short  \Yaik,  a  house  on  the  right, 
now  shut  in  by  high  walls  and  overtopped  by  pleached  liine-trces  ; 
a  pleasant  spot,  suggestive  of  privacy  and  wealth  ;  a  true  banker's 
residence ;  and  here,  we  are  told,  the  Protector  was  born.  Whether 
this  was  really  a  brewery,  is  doubtful ;  but  it  is  very  probable  that, 
in  his  day,  malting  and  brewing  to  some  extent  may  have  been 
carried  on  upon  the  premises  to  supply  the  wants  of  tenants  and 
dependants.  At  all  events,  the  narrow  lane  which  runs  by  the 
side  of  the  mansion,  contiguous  to  its  adjacent  out-buildings,  and 
the  vicinity  of  a  little  brook  hard  by,  would  have  been  very  suita- 
ble for  such  purposes.  But  the  family  of  Cromwell  was  not  base- 
born. 

Let  us  now  take  the  reader  by  the  hand,  and  invite  him  to  a 
pleasant  walk  up  the  gentle  slope  which  overhangs  the  town,  and 
across  a  bridge  now  traversing  the  Great  Northern  Railway. 
Thick  groves  of  young  and  flourishing  trees,  enclosed  within 
extensive  oaken  fences,  mark  the  beautiful  residence  of  one  of  our 
English  aristocracy,  the  Earl  of  Sandwich.  If  the  reader  can 
propitiate  the  dragons  who  guard  the  entrance,  he  will  find  him- 
self, after  traversing  a  considerable  park,  before  a  residence  of 
the  olden  time,  views  of  which  catch  the  eye  of  the  railway 
traveller  as  he  approaches  Huntingdon  from  the  south.  This  is 
the  ancient  residence  of  the  family  of  Cromwell,  —  Hinchinbrook 
House. 

"  I  was  by  birth,"  said  Cromwell,  in  one  of  his  speeches  to 
parliament,  "  neither  living  in  any  considerable  height,  nor  yet  in 
obscurity."     His  family  M-as  well  born,  had  some  relationship  wiili 


180  THE   CROWN  LESS   MONARCH. 

Thomas  Cromwell,  Earl  of  Essex,  and  "  mauler  of  monasteries"  in 
the  times  of  Henry  VIII.,  and  was  represented  by  many  branches 
round  about  the  country.  The  church  of  All-Saints,  Huntingdon, 
yet  preserves  traces  of  some  of  them  ;  namely, 

"  Johan  Cromwell,  daughter  of  Mr.  Oliver  Cromwell,  buried  13 
April,  1600." 

"  James  Tinsty,  servant  to  Sir  George  Cromwell." 

"  Mistress  Oliver  Cromwell,  of  Godmanchester,  buried  the  27 
July,  and  her  funeral  was  the  12th  of  August."     (Sic  !) 

"  Richard,  the  son  of  Mr.  George  Cromwell,  buried  the  18  Nov. 
1601." 

"  Mr.  George  Cromwell,  Captain,  buried  the  24  of  December, 
1601." 

Hinchinbrook  was  somewhat  memorable  in  the  history  of  royal 
progresses.  Henry  Cromwell  entertained  Elizabeth  at  this  family 
mansion  in  1563,  and  was  knighted  by  the  queen  in  testimony  of 
her  remembrance  of  his  hospitalities.  He  had  a  large  family,  six 
sons  and  five  daughters ;  the  eldest  son  succeeded  to  the  estate  ; 
the  second  daughter  was  the  mother  of  Hampden ;  the  youngest 
son,  Robert,  was  father  of  the  protector. 

This  Robert  Cromwell,  whose  elder  brother,  Oliver,  it  is  to  be 
remembered,  was  Lord  of  Hinchinbrook,  married  a  Miss  Steward, 
of  the  Isle  of  Ely,  a  descendant  of  the  royal  family  of  the  Stuarts, 
though  the  name  had  become,  in  process  of  time,  a  little  changed. 
She  was  a  woman  of  equal  energy  and  virtue;  simple  in  her  habits, 
firm  in  character,  a  faithful  wife,  and  a  true  mother,  who,  in  the 
later  years  of  her  life,  occupied  apartments  in  the  palace  of  White- 
hall, and  at  the  age  of  ninety-five  breathed  forth  her  "  good-night" 
to  her  son,  who  stood  by  her  bed-side. 

Of  these  parents  was  born  Oliver  Cromwell,  named  after  his 
uncle  at  Hinchinbrook.  Four  days  afterwards,  the  infant  was 
baptized  in  the  parish  church  of  St.  John's,  which  then  stood 
opposite  to  his  father's  house,  but  the  site  of  which  is  now  a  mere 
cemetery.     The  baptismal  registry  is  still  extant : 


THE   CROWNLESS   MONARCH.  181 


'■'■Anno  Dorn.,  1599. 
*^Oliverus,  filius  Robti  Cromwell  gentis  et  Elizabeth  ux :  eitis,  naius 
vicesimo  quinto  die  Aprilis,  et  Baptisatvs  vicesimo  nono  eiusdem  men- 
sis  ^ 

Of  the  house  in  which  this  great  man  saw  the  light,  scarcely 
any,  if  any,  trace  is  now  extant.  Rumor  speaks  of  a  remnant  of 
the  old  Gothic  edifice  ;  but  it  is  mere  rumor.  The  existing  build- 
ing is  of  comparatively  modern  date  ;  and  as  one  walks  round,  and 
looks  into  the  precincts,  all  which  one  can  connect  with  Cromwell 
is  an  ancient  wall,  probably  belonging  to  the  monastery  on  the 
locality  of  which  Mr.  Robert  Cromwell's  house  was  built,  but 
which  it  gratifies  the  fancy  to  connect  with  the  boyish  antics  of 
the  future  statesman.  Many  traditions,  two  of  which  we  give  as 
we  find  them,  have  become  attached  to  Oliver's  memory.  One 
is,  that  when  the  little  infant  was  carried  up  to  Hinchinbrook, 
that  his  relatives  might  see  him,  a  monkey  took  him  from  the 
cradle,  and  carried  him  up  to  the  leads  of  the  house.  Another 
is,  that  the  child  was  saved  from  drowning  by  Mr.  Johnson, 
curate  of  Cunnington,  who,  in  after  life,  told  Oliver  that  he 
wished  he  had  let  him  be  drowned,  rather  than  see  him  take  arms 
against  his  king. 

16 


182 


THE    CROWNLESS   MONARCH. 


In  the  year  1603,  Hinchinbrook  was  the  scene  of  great  prejAr- 
ations  and  festivity  at  the  reception  of  James  I.,  who  was  then 
travelling  southward  to  take  possession  of  the  crown  of  England. 
The  king  stayed  here  two  nights.  In  honor  of  this  visit,  Oliver, 
the  protector's  uncle,  built  the  portion  of  the  mansion  which  yet 
forms  the  most  conspicuous  part  of  the  edifice,  and  displays  the 
royal  arms  carved  in  stone. 


HINCHIXBROOK   HOUSE,*  —  THE   SEAT   OP   CHOMWELL's   ANCESTORS. 

The  entertainments  with  which  majesty  was  greeted  were  pro- 
fuse and  magnificent.  The  king  was  in  excellent  humor  at 
having  at  length  gained  possession  of  "  the  promised  land  ;  "  and 
the  tables  of  his  nobility  not  only  supplied  him  with  good  cheer, 
—  no  insignificant  matter  in  his  eyes,  —  but  afforded  him  an 
opportunity  for  displaying  his  boasted  conversational  powers.  He 
had  created  knights  all  the  way  tliat  he  came,  and  in  the  great 
hall  of  Hinchinbrook  he  dubbed  little  Oliver's  uncle  Sir  Oliver. 
His  majesty  departed  laden  with  the  presents  of  his  munificent 
host. 

The  following  anecdote  is  from  Noble  :  "  They  have  a  tradition 
%t  Huntingdon,  that  when  King  Charles  I., then  Duke  of  York,  in 

*  From  an  engraving  in  Noble's  Life  of  Cromwell. 


THE   CROWN  LESS    MONARCH.  188 

his  journey  from  Scotland  to  London,  in  1604,  called,  in  his  way, 
-It  Hinchinbrook,  the  seat  of  Sir  Oliver  Cromwell,  that  knight,  to 
divert  the  young  prince,  sent  for  his  nephew,  Oliver,  that  he, 
with  his  own  sons,  might  play  with  his  royal  highness ;  but  they 
had  not  been  long  together,  when  Charles  and  Oliver  disagreed ; 
and,  as  the  former  was  then  as  weakly  as  the  latter  was  strong,  it 
was  no  wonder  that  the  royal  visitant  was  worsted.  And  Oliver, 
even  at  this  age,  so  little  regarded  dignity,  that  he  made  the  royal 
blood  flow  in  copious  streams  from  the  prince's  nose.  I  give  this 
only  as  the  report  of  the  place."  Certain  it  is  that  this  story  is 
currently  believed  at  Huntingdon. 

The  grammar-school  of  the  town  at  which  young  Oliver  was 
educated  still  presei*ves  some  traces  of  the  original  edifice,  though 
considerably  altered,  and  almost  re-built.  His  master  was  Thomas 
Beard,  D.D.,  "preacher  of  the  word  in  the  town  of  Huntingdon," 
—  certainly  an  anti-papist,  and  probably  somewhat  of  a  puritan. 
Men's  minds  were  at  that  time  full  of  the  gunpowder  plot,  —  a 
then  recent  occurrence.  It  was  an  event  which  could  not  but 
make  a  profound  impression  on  the  imagination  of  young  Oliver ; 
nor  would  he  fail  to  connect  it,  in  after  years,  with  the  promotion 
of  Dr.  Laud  to  the  archdeaconry  of  Huntingdon.  We  find  Crom- 
well's first  recorded  public  speech  dwelling  on  the  tolerance  given  to 
"flat  popery  at  Paul's  Cross;  "  and  this  self-same  Dr.  Beard  cited 
as  his  autliority  for  his  statements.  Dr.  Beard,  like  his  contempo- 
rary, Dr.  Busby,  was  a  firm  believer  in  the  medicinal  virtues  of  the 
birch.  A  plate  of  him  is  said  to  exist,  representing  the  pedagogue, 
rod  in  hand,  with  two  scholars  in  the  back-ground,  and  '^  As  in 
prese7iti"  com'mg  from,  liis  mouth.  This  kind  of  regimen  seems 
to  have  been  frequently  emploj^cd  towards  the  young  pupil.  "His 
master,  honestly  and  severely  observing  his  faults,  did,  by 'correc- 
tion, hope  to  better  his  manners ;  and,  with  a  diligent  hand  and 
careful  eye,  to  hinder  the  thick  growth  of  those  vices  which  were 
so  predominant  and  visible  in  him."  Such  is  the  testimony  of  an 
enemy,  and  it  must,  therefore,  be  received  with  some  abatement. 
The  subsequent  acknowledgment  of  Oliver  himself,  —  "  You  know 


184  THE    CROWXLESS    MONARCH. 

what  manner  of  life  I  led,"  —  seems  to  imply  that  his  early  youth 
was  not  remarkable  for  its  regularity  or  propriety.  That  bridge 
across  the  brook  at  the  back  of  his  father's  house,  —  those  castle 
hills  whereon  the  youth  of  Huntingdon  love  to  congregtite,  —  that 
full  and  deep  river  bestrode  by  the  antique  bridge,  over  which  the 
royal  forces  afterwards  made  their  way  into  the  town,  —  could, 
perhaps,  tell  many  a  tale  of  follies  which  in  another's  case  would 
have  been  dismissed  and  forgotten,  but  which  it  suited  the  purpose 
of  "  Carrion  Heath "  to  retail  in  all  their  varied  or  disgusting 
features. 

These  are  meagre  materials  out  of  which  to  form  a  conception 
of  the  first  seventeen  years  of  Oliver's  life  ;  but  they  are  ail  now 
extant  of  any  credit  and  respectability.  The  2od  of  April,  1616, 
witnessed,  passing  along  the  raised  causeway  which  extends  from 
Huntingdon  to  Godmanchester,  a  father  and  a  son  travelling  to 
Cambridge,  that  that  son  might  be  admitted  fellow  commoner  of 
Sydney  Sussex  College ;  and  here  for  a  time  we  lose  sight  of  our 
young  hero.  Yet,  if  tradition  may  be  credited,  there  were  not 
wanting  reports  that  this  son  turned  out  somewhat  wild ;  in  fact, 
"  a  roysterer."  A  year  after,  his  devout  and  worthy  father  is 
taken  sick,  and  Oliver  is  summoned  in  all  haste  to  his  death-bed. 
This  event  breaks  up  his  college  career.  To  fit  him  for  the  duties 
of  after  life,  he  spends  some  time  in  London,  gaining  a  knowledge 
of  law  in  Lincoln's-inn.  Stories  of  his  wildness  still  prevail  at 
Huntingdon.  But  it  is  now  impossible  to  verify  them.  In  1620, 
just  after  he  had  reached  his  twenty-first  year,  he  returns  home, 
married  to  a  lady  suitable  for  a  life-companion,  and  not  entirely 
destitute  of  fortune.  He  now  takes  up  his  position  in  his  native 
town  ;  becomes  the  father  of  a  family ;  opens  his  house  to  perse- 
cuted puritan  ministers  ;  is  oppressed  by  convictions  of  conscience 
approaching  almost  to  insanity;  sets  himself  to  retrieve  and 
repair  some  of  his  former  errors ;  pays  back  money  which  he  had 
formerly  won  at  play ;  declares  himself  ready  to  make  restitution 
to  any  whom  he  had  wronged  ;  erects,  behind  his  house,  a  building 
which  might  be  used  as  a  chapel ;    grows  in  the  opinion  of  his 


THE    CROWXLESS    MONARCH.  185 

townsiiieii ;  is  an  unsuccessful  candidate,  in  1625,  for  his  native 
borough ;  but  is  returned  in  the  third  parliament  of  Charles  I., 
ready  to  take  his  part  in  the  mighty  movement  of  those  tumult- 
uous times. 

Could  we  discover  some  newspaper  of  1628,  containing,  in  the 
modern  fashion  of  detail,  the  whole  history  of  such  an  election,  — 
the  movers  and  seconders  of  the  candidates,  the  speeches  of  the 
day,  the  feeling  existing  in  that  ancient  borough  respecting  the 
court,  its  advisers  and  its  measures,  the  list  of  votes  as  they  were 
polled,  the  account  of  the  chairing  of  the  members  according  to 
the  fashion  of  those  times,  —  how  invaluable  would  such  a  docu- 
ment be ! 

The  following  mysterious  entry  occurs,  in  reference  to  this  year, 
in  the  Register  of  All-Saints',  Huntingdon  : 


1628. 


Hoc  anno  Oliverus  Cromwell  poenitentia  esca  tota  a 


.missa. 


«  * 


J.  T. 


The  initials  are  those  of  J.  Tomlinson,  then  the  rector.  The 
Latin  is  none  of  the  best,  and  it  defies  the  present  author's  power 
of  interpretation.  It  may  refer  to  the  uncle,  Sir  Oliver,  whose 
extravagance  had  compelled  him,  in  the  preceding  year,  to  sell 
Hinchinbrook  into  the  family  of  the  Montagues.  Or  does  it  refer 
to  the  nephew,  and  is  it  confirmatory  of  those  traditions  which 
relate  how  he  sold  his  wife's  jointure,  with  her  consent,  in  pay- 
ment of  his  debts  ?  and  does  it  tell  us  that  he  had  arrived  at  the 
end  of  his  substance,  being  then  a  penitent?  South's  abusive 
representation  of  Cromwell  may  be  here  remembered  :  "  Who  that 
had  seen  such  a  bankrupt,  beggarly  fellow  as  Cromwell  first  enter- 
ing the  Parliament-house,  with  a  thread-bare  cloak  and  a  greasy 
hat,  and  perhaps  neither  of  them  paid  for,"  &c.  We  must  regard 
this  interpretation  of  Mr.  Tomlinson's  bad  Latin  as  not  alto- 
gether improbable.  But  conjecture  is  useless.  This  much  alone 
is  clear,  that  from  this  time  the  whole  course  o^  Cromwell's  life 

*  Qu  1  e8c4  tot&  aiui8<3&. 

le^^' 


188  THE   CROWNLESS    MONARCH. 

became  completely  changed.  That  change  he  avows  in  a  letter 
written  subsequently  to  his  cousin,  and  already  partially  quoted  : 
"You  know  what  manner  of  life  mine  hath  been.  0  !  I  lived  in 
and  loved  darkness,  and  hated  light ;  I  was  a  chief,  yea,  the  chief 
of  sinners.  This  is  true  ;  I  hated  godliness,  yet  God  had  mercy  on 
me.  0  the  riches  of  his  mercy !  "  The  Christian  man  who  hon- 
ors the  transforming  power  of  religion  will  not  shrink  from  this 
side  of  the  alternative. 

What  tempestuous  matters  were  agitated  in  this  parliament 
needs  not  here  be  told.  The  relationship  between  Cromwell  and 
Hampden,  with  St.  John's  marriage  to  Oliver's  cousin,  would  nec- 
essarily place  the  young  Cromwell  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight ; 
and  the  only  speech  in  a  committee  of  this  parliament  which  is 
extant  shows  with  what  eagerness  he  took  up  the  cause  of  prot- 
estantism. Parliament  was  vehemently  and  angrily  dissolved. 
"  I  know,"  said  the  king,  "  there  are  dutiful  subjects  in  this  house 
as  any  in  the  world ;  it  being  but  some  few  vipers  among  them  that 
did  cast  this  mist  of  misunderstanding  before  their  eyes."  "  To 
conclude,  these  vipers  must  look  for  their  reward  of  punishment." 
Was  Cromwell  then  in  the  king's  eye,  as  a  young  spawn  of  this 
brood  ? 

Eleven  years  now  elapse  before  the  electors  of  Huntingdon  are 
again  called  to  exercise  their  franchise.  After  three  years  were 
ended,  Cromwell  ceased  to  be  a  resident  in  his  native  town,  and 
we  must  move  with  him  five  or  six  miles  lower  down  the  river. 
His  mother  remained  at  Huntingdon,  making  the  best  of  the  prop- 
erty belonging  to  the  family.  She  was  well  known  as  a  good 
parent,  a  frugal  housewife,  and  a  clever  manager  of  her  brewery  — 
if  brewery  it  were. 

St.  Ives,  though  not  itself  actually  fen-country,  is  the  cattle- 
market  of  the  fens.  It  has  many  points  of  resemblance  to  Hun- 
tingdon, being  situated  like  it  upon  a  rising  bank  of  land  imme- 
diately above  the  river  Ouse,  and  overlooking  a  large  extent  of 
flat  country.  On  one  side  of  the  river  the  fields  are  all  pastures, 
rich,  green,  and  succulent.     An  antique  bridge,  with  only  breadth 


THE    CROWNLESS   MONARCH.  187 

enough  to  admit  of  a  single  carriage,  spans  the  river  by  six  arches, 
and  bears  upon  it  the  remains  of  a  chapel,  now  transformed  into  a 
beer-house.  The  town  preserves  an  air  of  grave  and  sober  anti- 
quity, here  and  there  yielding  to  the  innovations  of  modern  time. 
A  venerable  house,  which  stands  by  the  side  of  the  bridge,  gives 
the  town,  as  one  enters,  a  somewhat  foreign  air.  Carlyle  supposes 
that  in  the  seventeenth  century  it  consisted,  not,  as  now,  mainly 
of  one  long  street,  having  houses  on  each  side,  but  principally  of  a 
row  of  houses  overlooking  the  river,  with  an  intervening  green. 
That  author's  visit  to  the  town  must  have  certainly  been  made 
under  unfavorable  circumstances.  The  river  is  not  "  black  as 
Acheron ;  "  its  waters  are  limpid  and  transparent,  though  some- 
what deep,  and  the  metallic  streaks  to  which  he  refers  must  have 
arisen  from  some  accidental  and  unusual  defilement.  The  church 
is  pleasantly  situated  on  a  gentle  elevation  at  the  end  of  the  town, 
immediately  above  a  brancii  of  the  stream ;  and,  though  it  has  no 
architecture  of  high  pretensions,  is  a  good  and  substantial  edifice. 
Like  many  such  structures,  its  interior  has  been  sadly  disfigured 
by  modern  alteration ;  but  it  preserves  some  traces  of  the  ancient 
carved  pews  which  once  filled  it,  probably  about  the  date  of  James 
I.,  and  the  pulpit  is  perhaps  referable  to  the  same  period.  The 
whole  structure  has  a  mildewy  air,  which  corresponds  with  the 
times  of  which  we  write. 

Such  was  the  town  in  which  Cromwell,  then  a  grazing  farmer, 
spent  five  years  of  his  varied  life.  The  lands  occupied  by  him 
were  on  the  end  of  the  town  opposite  to  the  church.  It  is  believed 
at  St.  Ives  that  he  lived  in  an  old  house  called  Slepe-hall.  Crom- 
well certainly  rented  the  estate ;  and  though  the  house,  lately 
standing  but  now  removed,  was  more  modern  than  the  time  at 
which  he  lived,  the  traces  of  an  older  building  have  been  very 
apparent  in  its  removal,  and  a  chain  of  testimony  points  to  this 
preexisting  hall  as  his  residence.  The  barn  belonging  to  it  is 
unquestionably  an  ancient  piece  of  masonry ;  the  timber- work  of 
the  roof  is  very  curiously  constructed ;  and  a  strong  and  confident 
statoriient  attaches  his  tenantship  to  the  building,   whilst  some 


188  THE   CROWNLESS    MONARCH. 

inhabitants  of  St.  Ives   remember  the   rings  to  which,  it  wa« 
asserted,  Cromwell's  horses  were  customarily  attached. 


CROMWELL'S    BARN   AT   ST.  IVES. 


Cromwell  was  overseer  of  the  St.  Ives'  green,  —  perhaps  then 
used  as  a  cattle-market,  —  and  his  name  appears  in  the  parish 
records  of  the  town  in  this  capacity.  Carlyle  says,  graphically,  as 
he  points  to  the  lands  "  past  which  the  river  Ouse  sluniberously 
rolls  :  "  "  Here  of  a  certainty  Oliver  did  walk  and  look  about  him 
habitually  during  those  five  years,  from  1631  to  1636, —  a  man 
studious  of  many  temporal  and  many  eternal  things  !  His  cattle 
grazed  here,  his  ploughs  tilled  here,  the  heavenly  skies  and  infer- 
nal abysses  over-arched  and  under-arched  him  here  !  "  ^ 

He  had  certainly  materials  enough  for  reflection.  Not  to  speak 
of  the  inward  conflicts  of  his  own  mind,  —  conflicts  arising  from 

*  To  this  period  of  Cromwell's  life  we  may  imagine  Milton's  stately  evilogium 
to  refer  : 

"  He  had  grown  up  in  peace  and  privacy  at  home,  silently  cherishing  in  his 
heart  a  confidence  in  God,  and  a  magnanimity  well  adapted  for  the  solemn 
times  that  were  approaching.  Although  of  ripe  years,  he  had  not  yet  stepped 
forward  into  public  life  ;  and  nothing  so  much  distinguished  him  from  all 
around,  as  the  cultivation  of  a  pure  religion,  and  the  integrity  of  his  life." 


THE    CROWNLESS    MONARCH.  189 

the  views  of  truth  he  had  been  recently  led  to  take  —  deep,  ear- 
nest, heaven-born  impulses,  —  society  around  him  was  raging  like 
a  volcano.  Laud's  horizon,  though  as  yet  he  knew  it  not,  was 
growing  darker  and  darker.  Pryime's  case,  with  that  of  Burton 
and  of  Bastwick,  was  deeply  touching  the  sympathies  of  men's 
minds.  Episcopacy  was  beginning  to  be  introduced  in  Scotland. 
The  efiforts  made  by  well-wishers  of  religion  to  purchase  advow- 
sons,  that  godly  ministers  might  preach  the  truth,  had  exposed 
many  to  the  terrors  of  the  Star  Chamber.  The  Book  of  Sports 
was  revived.  The  writs  of  ship-money  had  been  issued,  and 
Hampden  had  stood  resolute  in  its  refusal.  The  thunder-storm 
■was  rising  ! 

Cromwell  had  now  a  numerous  family,  the  eldest  son  a  youth 
of  great  hope.  What  destiny  he  might  imagine  for  his  son  — 
what  for  himself —  who  can  tell !  As  he  walked  to  that  old 
church,  his  neck  enveloped,  if  tradition  may  be  believed,  in  red 
flannel  (for  the  air  of  the  place  did  not  agree  with  his  constitution), 
what  devout  thoughts  regarding  his  own  spiritual  state,  and  what 
distaste,  probably,  for  the  preacher  who  gave  him  husks  instead  of 
grain  !  How  would  he  muse  upon  the  religious  destitution  around 
him  !  How  converse  upon  the  subject  with  "  Dr.  Wells,  a  man 
of  goodness,  and  industry,  and  ability  to  do  good  everyway"! 
How  listen  to  his  words,  perhaps  on  the  very  spot  now  occupied  by 
nonconformists  in  a  similar  manner !  His  fervor  was  contagious ; 
fervor  cannot  be  hid.  It  communicated  itself  to  his  tenants  and 
friends.  Cromwell  prayed  with  them,  expounded  to  them,  sounded 
the  very  depths  of  their  hearts.  And  then  we  think  how,  amidst 
the  dreadful  chaos  of  his  emotions,  there  came  across  his  mind  the 
thought  which  loyalty  forbade  him  to  utter,  and  Christianity  to 
think  of  (it  was  a  Jewish  age!)^  —  the  sword!     Till  the  grave 

*  We  have  before  us  a  pamphlet  entitled  "The  Truth  of  the  Times  Vindi- 
cated ;  whereby  the  lawfulness  of  Parliamentary  proceedings  in  taking  up  of 
arms  is  justified,  &c.,  by  William  Bridge,  Preacher  of  God's  Word,  at  Yar- 
mouth," the  arguments  of  which  are  almost  entirely  drawn  from  Judaism. 
Owen,  too,  was  strongly  belligerent.  An  appeal  to  arms  on  behalf  of  Chris- 
tianity is,  perhaps,  one  of  the  greatest  anomalies  on  record. 


190  THE   CROWNLESS    MONARCH. 

reveal  its  secrets,  we  can  never  know  precisely  what  these  work- 
ings were  !  They  have  passed  away  like  the  waters  of  the  river 
on  whose  banks  they  were  conceived.  But  fit  is  it  that  St.  Ives 
should  have  Cromwell's  monument.  Mistaken  as  in  some  points 
he  was,  there  has  been  a  prophet  among  them  !  Not  many  towns 
have  given  a  resting-place  to  a  king  in  his  own  right ! 

He  who  falls  in  with  the  lying,  canting  strain,  which  proclaims 
Cromwell  to  be  nothing  but  a  designing  hypocrite,  has  small 
knowledge  of  the  anatomy  of  human  nature.  It  is  true  that  he 
might  deem  considerable  retention  of  his  thoughts  to  be  legitimate 
—  even  virtuous ;  and  that  he  might  carry  that  opinion  more 
strongly  than  we  should  care  to  justify.  But  his  private  utter- 
ances are  not  at  war  with  his  public  ones.  The  complexion  of  his 
inward  musings,  so  far  as  they  can  be  gleaned  from  his  most  con- 
fidential letters,  does  not  differ  from  that  of  his  public  actions. 
Religion  was  not  vrith  him  a  garb  put  on  as  a  holiday  suit ;  it  was 
an  earnest  and  deep  conviction.  He  must  be  strangely  constituted, 
who,  while  reading  Cromwell's  letters,  and  then  viewing  his  private 
life,  can  discern  nothing  in  him  but  unniingled  dissimulation.  He 
declares  himself  not  to  have  been  ambitious  of  power.  What  is 
there  to  prove  the  contrary  ?  Amidst  the  earlier  part  of  Charles' 
reign,  his  talents  might  have  won  for  him  distinctions  of  a  high 
order ;  yet  until  the  age  of  forty  we  see  him  little  more  than  a 
dignified  farmer.  So  far  from  eagerly  grasping  after  place  and 
power,  it  was  the  force  of  circumstances  alone  which  brought  him 
out  from  his  obscurity,  and  set  him  on  high  as  the  object  of  uni- 
versal attention.  That  men's  noses  were  slit,  and  men's  ears  cut 
oflF,  because  of  their  love  to  a  spiritual  religion,  was  no  fault  of 
Cromwell's.  It  was  no  fault  of  his  that  a  nation,  long  down- 
trodden, rose  up,  with  an  almost  unanimous  energy,  to  assert  their 
rights  and  liberties.  In  the  first  instance,  Cromwell  was  but  fol- 
lowing in  the  wake  of  others,  and  he  certainly  indicated  no  eager 
desire  to  be  prominent  in  the  reclamations  of  the  times.  But 
that,  when  the  quarrel  had  reached  its  crisis,  and  the  demands  of 
the  period  culled  out  loudly /o-^  a  man^  Cromwell,  feeling  himself 


THE  CROWNLESS  MONARCH.  191 

inspired  for  great  actions,  put  himself  into  the  position  to  which 
an  outraged  nation  was  calling  him,  is  his  highest  honor.  "I  have 
been  called,"  he  said,  in  a  subsequent  address  to  the  House  of 
Commons,  "to  several  employments  in  the  nation,  and  I  did 
endeavor  to  discharge  the  duty  of  an  honest  man  in  those  services, 
to  God  and  his  people's  interest,  and  to  the  commonwealth  ;  hav- 
ing, when  time  was,  a  competent  acceptation  in  the  hearts  of  men, 
and  some  evidence  thereof."  If  any  man  were  ever  summoned  by 
Providence  to  the  post  he  afterwards  occupied,  Cromwell  was  that 
man.  When  once  aroused,  there  were  with  such  a  man  no  pro- 
longed pauses  of  hesitancy : 


•'  On  each  glance  of  thought 

Decision  followed,  as  the  thundei  -bolt 
Pursues  the  flash.'* 

To  determine  and  to  do  were  with  him  almost  simultaneous ;  and 
when  Charles  had  consummated  his  oppression,  by  the  attempt  to 
seize  the  five  members,  and  war  had  become  inevitable,  he  was  at 
once,  and  the  first,  in  action.  His  influence,  his  purse,"^  his  sword, 
were  at  the  nation's  call ;  and  on  August/  15,  1642,  we  find  him 
under  arms,  taking  vigorous  measures  for  the  defence  of  the  king- 
dom, seizing  the  magazine  in  the  castle  of  Cambridge,  and  hin- 
dering "the  carrying  off  of  plate  from  that  aniversity."t  The 
king  was  soon  to  learn  what  an  enemy  his  unrighteous  acts  had 
made. 

Cromwell  is  now  appointed  captain,  and  so^n  after  colonel,  of 
the  sixty-seventh  troop  of  the  parliament's  forces;  the  commander- 
in-chief  Ijeing  the  Earl  of  Esses.     He  is  present  at  the  indecisive 

*  He  states  himself  to  have  contributed  to  this  service  between  eleven  and 
twelve  hundred  pounds.     Carlyle,  vol.  i.,  p.  226. 

t  This  service  was  of  great  importance  to  the  commonwealth.  It  was  not 
only  twenty  thousand  pounds  cut  olf  from  the  royalists,  but  the  addition  of 
twenty  thousand  pounds  to  the  funds  for  raising  the  parliamentary  army  ;  and 
this  was  at  the  time  most  valuable.  Cromwell  was  assisted  in  this  movement 
by  Wauton,  father  of  Valentino  Wauton,  who  afterwfuJs  became  his  brother- 
in-law,  and  one  of  the  captains  of  the  Ironsides. 


192  THE    CROWNLESS   MONARCH. 

battle  of  Edge-hill,  and  he  is  already  coming  to  conclusions  far  in 
advance  of  his  position.  His  rapid  tactics  have  on  more  than  one 
occasion  "prevented  the  designs  of  the  royal  army."  But  ho 
groans  inwardly  at  the  want  of  adequate  support  from  those  who 
ought  to  aid  him,  and  says  to  Hampden,  yet  living,  "  Your  troops 
are  most  of  them  old,  decayed  serving-men,  and  tapsters,  and  such 
kind  of  fellows ;  and  their  troops  are  gentlemen's  sons,  younger 
sons,  and  persons  of  quality  ;  do  you  think  that  the  spirits  of  such 
base  and  mean  fellows  will  be  ever  able  to  encounter  gentlemen 
that  have  honor  and  courage  and  resolution  in  them  ? "  Forthwith, 
therefore,  he  began  to  organize  his  Ironsides,  and  to  try  what 
religious  conviction  would  do,  when  set  in  array  against  punctilious 
loyalty.  "  My  troops,"  he  writes,  *'  increase.  T  have  a  lovely 
company ;  you  would  respect  them,  did  you  know  them.  No 
anabaptists  ?  They  are  honest,  sober  Cliristians  ;  they  expect  to 
be  used  as  men  !  "  "I  had  rather  have  a  plain  russet-coated  cap- 
tain, that  knows  what  he  fights  for  and  loves  what  he  knows,  than 
that  which  you  call  a  gentleman,  and  is  nothing  else."  Of  these 
Ironsides  there  appears  to  have  been  nearly  fifty  troops  organized 
from  the  surrounding  districts,  as  the  "  St.  Neot's  troop,"  &c. 
The  captains  of  these  troops  probably  included  Evanson,  Whalley, 
Norton,  Sidney  (Algernon?)  O.  Cromwell,  jr.,^  H.  Cromwell, 
Montague  (afterwards  Earl  of  Sandwich),  and  others.  These 
troops  seem  to  have  been  formed  at  different  periods.  It  was 
the  desire  of  Cromwell  that  his  Ironsides  should  be,  in  the  phrase 
of  that  day,  "a  gathered  church."  t  Now  and  then  an  old  Bible 
turns  up  from  the  relics  of  a  past  age,  which  formed  an  absolute 
necessary  of  their  baggage  and  equipment.  The  report  is  that  a 
fine  of  twelve-pence  was  levied  for  every  oath,  and  that  plunder, 
drinking  and  disorder,  were  severely  discountenanced.  An  air  of 
stern  morality  t  pervaded  the  whole  superintendence  of  these  troops, 

♦  This  was  Cromwell's  eldest  son.      He  appears  to  have  been  killed  near 
Knaresborough,  in  1644. 
t  Calamy's  Baxter. 
:f  Even  Clarendon  bears  witness  concerning  these  soldiers —  "An  army  whoso 


THE   CROWNLESS   MONARCH.  193 

and  indeed  the  conduct  of  Oliver  himself.  He  had  got  into  his 
possession  a  horse  seized  by  force.  "  I  understand,"  he  writes, 
"  there  was  some  exception  taken  at  a  horse  that  was  sent  to  me. 
If  the  owner  be  not  by  you  judged  a  malignant,  and  you  do  not 
approve  of  my  having  of  the  horse,  I  shall  as  willingly  return  him 
again,  as  you  shall  desire.  Not  that  I  would  for  ten  thousand 
horses  have  the  horse  to  my  own  private  benefit,  saving  to  make 
use  of  him  for  the  public,"  &c. 

For  an  account  of  the  rapidity  of  Cromwell's  marches  and 
counter-marches,  at  this  crisis  everywhere  full  of  decision,  we 
must  be  content  to  refer  our  reader  to  the  pages  of  his  biography 
themselves,  which  record  how  he  dashed  into  St.  Alban's  in  the 
midst  of  a  certain  royal  commission  of  array,  broke  down  the 
intrenchment  of  Lowestoffe,  delivered  Lincolnshire  from  the  power 
of  the  r.^yalists,  and,  by  concentrating  thus  a  strong  force  in  the 
eastern  counties,  kept  the  war  most  effectually  from  that  quarter 
of  the  kingdom.  Many  similar  adventures  at  this  period  demon- 
strated equally  his  skill  and  prowess. 

We  have  seen  what  was  the  substance  of  the  solemn  league  and 
covenant  taken  at  this  time  by  the  English  parliament,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  Scottish  nation.  Cromwell  himself  does  not  appear 
to  have  been  in  London  to  affix  his  signature  among  the  rest  to 
that  celebrated  document.  But  that  he  was  prepared  to  act  iu 
the  full  spirit  of  it,  the  following  incident  will  show  :  Lord  Man^ 
Chester  is,  at  this  time,  sergeant-major  of  the  associated  counties, 
Cromwell  being  his  lieutenant,  and  also  governor  of  Ely.  Parlia- 
ment has  determined  on  the  removal  of  all  "  monuments  of  super- 
stition and  idolatry,"  and  Cromwell  resolves  to  enforce  the  com- 
mand in  his  own  vicinity.  The  scene  is  Ely  Cathedral,  a  very 
ancient  edifice,  bearing  traces  of  having  been  repaired  and  restored 
at  various  periods,  and  of  having  narrowly  escaped  total  destruction 
in  the  wars  with  the  barons,  during  the  reign  of  King  John. 

sobriety  of  manners,  whose  courage  and  success,  made  it  famous  and  terrible 
over  the  world  ;  which  lived  like  good  husbandmen  in  the  country,  and  good 
citizens  in  the  city."    Rebellion,  vol.  iv.,  p.  729. 

17 


194  THE   CROWNLESS   MONARCH. 

Cromwell,  wlio  has  caused  fortifications  to  be  raised  near  the 
Horse-Shoe,  to  secure  the  passes  out  of  Lincolnshire,  which  were 
held  on  behalf  of  the  king,  resolves  to  proceed  in  enforcing  the 
orders  of  the  parliament  with  promptitude.  A  letter  has  accord- 
ingly been  despatched  to  "  The  Reverend  Mr.  Plitch,  at  Ely," 
requiring  him,  "  lest  the  soldiers  should  in  any  tumultuary  or  dis- 
orderly way  attempt  the  reformation  of  the  Cathedral  Church," 
"to  forbear  altogether"  the  "choir  service,  as  unedifying  and 
offensive  j"  and  conveying,  moreover,  this  advice  :  "I  advise  you 
to  catechise,  and  read  and  expound  the  Scripture  to  the  people ; 
not  doubting  but  the  parliament,  with  the  advice  of  the  assembly 
of  divines,  will  direct  you  further.  I  desire  your  sermons  where 
usually  they  have  been,  but  more  frequent.  Your  loving  friend, 
Oliver  Cromwell."^ 

The  warning  was  disregarded  ;  the  choir  service  went  on.  The 
little  city,  to  whose  knowledge  we  may  suppose  this  military  threat- 
ening had  come,  was  in  a  hubbub  of  anxious  expectation  as  to  what 
the  event  might  be.  Cromwell  issued  no  idle  orders.  One  day, 
therefore,  he  makes  his  appearance  in  the  church,  his  hat  upon  his 

*  The  second  volume  (third  edition)  of  Carlyle's  "  Letters,  Ac,"  which  pre- 
sents to  the  public  the  remarkable  collection  entitled  the  Squire-papers,  con- 
tains the  following  letter,  bearing  date  a  little  while  preceding  : 

'*  Christmas  Eve,  1643. 
"To  Mr.  Squire. 

"  Sin  :  It  is  no  use  any  man's  saying  he  will  not  do  this  or  that.    What  is  to 

be  done  is  no  choice  of  mine.    Let  it  be  sufficient,  it  is  the  parliament's  orders, 

and  we  to  obey  them.     I  am  surprised  at  Montague  to  say  so.   Show  him  this; 

if  the  men  are  not  of  a  mind  to  obey  this  order,  I  will  cashier  them,  the  whole 

troop.      I  heed  God's  House  as  much  as  any  man,  but  vanities  and  trumpery 

give  no  honor  to  God,  nor  idols  serve  him  ;    neither  do  painted  windows  make 

men  more  pious.     Let  them  do  as  parliament  bid  them,  or  else  go  home  :    and 

then  others  will  be  less  careful  to  do  what  we  had  done  with  judgment.    I  learn 

there  is  four  men  down  with  the  sickness  in  the  St.  Neot's  troop  now  at  march. 

Let  me  hear;  so  ride  over,  and  learn  all  of  it. 

"  Sir,  I  am  your  friend, 

"OUVKR  CBOlCWBIiL.** 

Squire  has  endorsed,  —  **  They  obeyed  the  order.** 


THE  CROWNLESS  MONARCH.  195 

head.  He  gazes  sternly  at  the  resolute  looks  of  the  little  congre- 
gation, and  says  aloud,  "  I  am  a  man  under  authority  :  I  am  com- 
manded to  dismiss  this  assembly."  He  is  disregarded ;  the  service 
goes  on.  He  becomes  more  peremptory.  "  Leave  oflf  your  fooling, 
and  come  down,  sir !  "  was  the  distinct  and  sufficient  command.  It 
was  no  longer  to  be  disputed,  and  the  company  gloomily  retired. 

This  was  a  sad  scene,  but  not  unlike  a  hundred  previous  ones, 
which  had  removed  catholic  worshippers  to  make  way  for  their 
protestant  successors.  It  was  a  lesson  to  those  who  stood  by  par- 
liamentary enactment,  that  the  power  which  had  made  could  also 
unmake.  Such  are  the  alternations  to  which  a  state-church  is 
necessarily  liable  in  times  of  public  excitement.  For  the  sake  of 
peace,  of  the  decencies  of  a  spiritual  religion,  and  of  truth  itself, 
let  it  not  be  exposed  to  such  questionable  hazards  !  "What  has 
Christ's  gospel  to  do  with  steel  caps  or  glittering  partisans,  or  why 
needs  it  be  subjected  to  their  influence  ?  Cromwell  learned  after- 
wards to  suspect  the  system  under  which  he  was  then  acting  ;  but 
if  there  be  a  parliamentary  church  at  all,  and  if  the  parliament, 
which  gives  life  to  that  church,  deem  certain  opinions  sacrilegious 
and  unchristian, — and  if,  moreover,  those  who  believe  in  the  author- 
ity of  such  a  church  refuse  to  adhere  to  the  principle  which  their 
own  doctrine  recognizes, — what  then  ?  It  is  not  for  us,  who  deny 
the  right  of  the  state's  interference,  to  be  responsible  for  all  its 
possible  consequences. 

Already  the  "solemn  league  and  covenant"  is  beginning  to  work 
ill.  Cromwell  himself  becomes  one  of  the  first  to  distrust  its  effi- 
cacy. For,  not  two  months  after  this  transaction  at  Ely,  we  have 
a  letter  of  remonstrance  to  Major-general  Crawford,  on  behalf  of 
some  poor  anabaptist  in  the  army,  who  it  seems  has  been  laid  under 
arrest  because  of  his  unpopular  opinions ;  giving  us  clear  evidence 
how  a  man  like  Cromwell,  taught  by  experience  and  reflection, 
may  begin  to  outgrow  a  garment  which  seemed  to  fit  him  only  a 
few  short  weeks  before : 

"  Surely,  you  are  not  well  advised  thus  to  turn  off"  one  so  faith- 
ful to  the  cause,  and  so  able  to  serve  you  as  this  man  is.    Give  me 


196  THE   CROWNLESS   MONARCH. 

leave  to  tell  you,  I  cannot  be  of  your  judgment  (if  a  man  notori- 
ous for  wickedness,  for  oaths,  for  drinking,  hath  as  great  a  share 
in  your  affection  as  one  who  fears  an  oath,  who  fears  to  sin),  that 
this  doth  commend  your  election  of  men  to  serve  as  fit  instruments 
in  this  work  !  " 

"  Ay,  but  the  man  *  is  an  anabaptist.' "  "Are  you  sure  of  that  ? 
Admit  he  be,  shall  that  render  him  incapable  to  serve  the  public  ? " 
:^  #  "  Sir,  the  state,  in  choosing  men  to  serve  it,  takes  no  notice 
of  their  opinions ;  if  they  be  willing  faithfully  to  serve  it,  that  sat- 
isfies. I  advised  you  formerly  to  bear  with  men  of  different  minds 
from  yourself:  if  you  had  done  it  when  I  advised  you  to  it,  I 
think  you  would  not  have  had  so  many  stumbling-blocks  in  your 
way." 

What  will  the  Westminster  assembly  of  divines,  now  earnestly 
sitting,  say  to  such  doctrine  ?  Baillie  shall  answer  for  himself : 
"  The  independents  have  so  managed  their  affaires,  that  of  the 
officers  and  sojours  in  Manchester's  armie,  certainlie  also  in  tlie 
generall's,  and,  as  I  hear,  in  Waller's  likewise,  more  than  the  two 
parts  are  for  them,  and  these  of  the  farr  most  resolute  and  confi- 
dent men  for  the  parliament  party.  Judge  ye  if  we  had  not  need 
of  our  friends'  help."=^  "  In  this  long  anarchic,  the  sectaries  and 
heretics  increase  marvellouslie ;  yet  we  are  hopeful!,  if  God  might 
help  us,  to  have  our  presbyteries  erected  as  we  expect  shortly  to 
have  them,  and  gett  the  chiefe  of  the  independents  to  joyn  with  us 
in  our  practicall  conclusions,  as  we  are  much  labouring  for  it ;  and 
are  not  yet  out  of  hope,  we  trust,  to  winn  alwut  all  the  rest  of 
these  wild  and  enormous  people."  t  "  The  humor  of  this  people 
is  very  various  and  inclinable  to  singularities,  to  differ  from  all  the 
world,  and  one  from  another,  and  shortly  from  themselves.  No 
people  had  so  much  need  of  a  presbytrie."  t 

But  instead  of  matters  inclining,  as  the  war  went  on,  to  this 
mode  of  adjustment,  they  gradually  moved  further  and  further 
from  the  desired  point.     After  the  battle  of  Marston  Moor,  fol- 

•  Baillie,  April  26,  1644.  f  Ibid.,  April  29,  1644. 

t  Ibid.,  May  9,  1644 


THE   CROWNLESS    MONARCH.  197 

lowed  by  the  second  battle  of  Newbury,  Cromwell  and  Manchester 
differed,  divided,  became  antagonists.  Whilst  Essex  and  Man- 
chester commanded,  the  war  was  indeed  little  likely  to  be  brought 
to  a  close.  Cromwell  exhibited  in  the  House  of  Commons  charges 
against  his  superior  officer,  and  was  charged  in  return  with  having 
said,  "  There  will  never  be  a  good  time  in  England  till  we  have 
done  with  lords."  The  self-denying  ordinance  was  accordingly 
passed  ;  was  at  fii-st.  rejected  by  the  lords,  but  afterwards  obtained 
their  concurrence.  One  of  the  features  of  this  bill  was,  that  reli- 
gious men  might  be  permitted  to  serve  in  the  army  without  taking 
the  covenant ;  another  was,  that  no  member  of  either  house  should 
take  any  office  of  cwnmand,  civil  or  military.  The  adherents  of 
the  covenant  were  deeply  shocked  by  Cromwell  having  declared 
that,  if  he  met  the  king  in  battle,  he  would  as  soon  fire  his  pistol 
at  him  as  at  any  other  man.  Essex,  Manchester,  and  others, 
immediately  resigned  their  commissions.  Cromwell,  by  some 
means  not  very  apparent,  retained,  or  was  recalled  to,  his  post  of 
service.  The  season  of  uniformity  and  dilatoriness  had  passed. 
The  battle  of  Naseby  followed.  Charles  was  completely  routed  on 
the  field,  and  the  publication  of  his  correspondence,  seized  on  the 
spot,  proclaimed  to  the  nation  his  utter  insincerity ,'^  and  his  deter- 
mination to  have  called  in  a  catholic  army  to  reinstate  him  on  the 
throne.  "  I  give  thee  power,"  he  says  to  one  of  his  generals,  "  to 
promise  in  my  name  that  I  will  take  away  all  the  2)enal  laws 
against  the  Roman  Catholics  in  England,  as  soon  as  God  shall 
enable  me  to  do  it ;  so  that  by  their  means  and  favors  I  may  have 
such  powerful  resistance  as  may  deserve  so  great  a  favor,  and 
enable  me  to  do  it."  It  was  equally  evident  that  the  king  was 
intending  to  bring  in  a  foreign  force  for  the  subjugation  of  his 

*  The  want  of  "  reliableness,"  to  use  a  Scottish  phrase,  was  remarkable  in 
the  Stuarts.  It  was  a  vice  of  James  I.  Part  of  Rochester'a  epigram  was 
equally  applicable  to  the  father,  the  son,  and  the  grandson  : 

"Here  lies  our  sovereign  Lord  the  king, 
Whose  word  no  man  relies  on-'* 


198  THE   CROWNLESS   MONARCH. 

people."^  This  battle,  after  some  further  adventures,  in  which 
Cromwell's  energy  was  conspicuous,  ended  the  first  civil  war,  June 
14,  1645.  with  the  defeat  of  the  king. 

Charles  now  put  himself  into  the  hands  of  the  Scottish  army, 
encamped  before  Newark.  The  solitary  man  who,  with  clipped 
beard,  and  in  a  mean  disguise,  came  to  seek  a  refuge  in  the  camp 
of  his  enemies,  was  yet.  a  king ;  and  the  Scotch  army  was  not 
insensible  of  the  advantages  his  possession  gave  them.  But  the 
king  proved  in  their  hands  intractable.!  He  would  not  abandon 
episcopacy ;  the  Scotch  would  not  abandon  their  covenant ;  and  be- 
tween the  presbyterian  and  the  independent  party  Charles  endeav- 
ored to  intrigue,  so  as  to  get  "  his  ain  again."  "  The  king's  mad- 
ness," writes  Baillie, "  has  confounded  us  all.  We  are  in  a  woeful 
evil  taking  ;  we  know  not  what  to  doe,  nor  what  to  say."  t  "The 
king's  answer  has  broken  our  heart ;  we  see  nothing  but  a  sea  of 
new  and  more  horrible  confusions.  We  are  afraid  of  the  hardness 
of  God's  decree  against  that  madd  man,  and  against  all  his  king- 
domes."  ^  The  result  was,  that  the  Scottish  army  delivered  him 
over  into  the  hands  of  the  English,  receiving  two  hundred  thou- 
sand pounds  in  payment  of  the  arrears  due  to  the  army,  and 
marched  home.  They  would  not  serve  a  monarch  who  rejected 
the  covenant  of  Christ.  His  majesty  left  Newcastle,  and  was 
escorted  to  a  kind  of  honorable  imprisonment  in  Holmby  House. 
.  The  10th  March,  1647,  was  appointed  by  the  commons  — 
who  as  yet  adhered  to  the  notion  of  the  possibility  of  a  general 
uniformity,  and  had  just  passed  the  presbyterian  platform  of  church 
government  —  as  a  day  of  fasting  and  humiliation  against  "  blas- 
phemies and  heresies."  It  was  the  first  overt  manifestation  of  a 
discord  which  soon  became  notorious.  Cromwell  felt  the  blow ; 
and  a  letter  of  his,  addressed  to  Fairfax,  who  had  now  superseded 
Manchester,  shows  the  state  of  his  feelings :    "  Never  were  the 

*  "The  King's  Cabinet,  <J;c.,  Opened."  Published  by  special  order  of  par- 
liament, 1645. 

t  Baillie,  Aug.  4,  1646.  ^  Ibid. 

§  No  fewer  than  twenty  garrifions  were  taken  this  summer  by  the  army. 


THE   CROWNLESS   MONARCH.  199 

spirits  of  men  more  embittered  than  now.  Surely  the  devil  hath 
but  a  short  time.  Sir,  it 's  good  the  heart  be  fixed  against  all 
this.  The  naked  simplicity  of  Christ,  with  that  wisdom  he  is 
pleased  to  give,  and  patience,  will  overcome  all  this  ^  ^  ^, 
Upon  the  fast-day  divers  soldiers  were  raised  (as  I  heard),  both 
horse  and  foot,  near  two  hundred  in  Covent  Garden,  to  prevent 
us  soldiers  from  cutting  the  presbyterians'  throats.  These  are 
fine  tricks  to  mock  God  with."  Uniformity  was  crumbling 
already  in  the  hands  of  its  manufacturers  !  The  city  and  the 
army  had  become  antagonists.  A  new  contest  was  rising — pres- 
byterianism  versus  independency;  by  which  word  independency 
let  the  reader  understand  is  meant  the  party  contending,  not  so 
much  for  a  particular  form  of  church  polity,  as  for  religious  liberty 
in  general.  Among  the  latter  party,  Cromwell  was  daily  becom- 
ing mightier.  He  had  even  ventured,  when  watching  the  devel- 
opments of  the  strugglers  for  uniformity  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, to  say  to  Ludlow, "  These  men  will  never  leave  till  the  army 
pull  them  out  by  the  ears  !  " 

We  must  hastily  pass  over  the  complicated  history  of  this  crisis. 
Presbyterianism  is  established,  at  least  in  London  and  in  Lanca- 
shire ;  but  the  discontents  between  the  city  and  army  are  every 
day  increasing.  Those  who  cannot  understand  the  questions  at  issue 
will  be  forward  in  connecting  these  dislocations  with  Cromwell's 
intrigues.  But  there  was  a  vital  question  involved ;  and  that 
question  was,  whether  Cromwell  and  his  army  would  allow  the 
religious  liberty,  for  which  they  had  struggled  so  manfully,  to  be 
crushed  by  the  heel  of  a  dominant  establishment,  by  what  religious 
name  soever  that  establishment  might  be  called.  Ludlow  relates 
that,  in  a  conversation  with  Harrison,  he  asked  that  general  what 
had  led  him  to  unite  with  Cromwell  in  his  movements  against  the 
parliament ;  and  the  reply  was,  "  that  he  had  done  it  because  he 
was  fully  persuaded  they  had  not  a  heart  to  do  any  more  good  for 
the  Lord  and  his  people."  The  king  had  been  taken  by  the  army 
from  Holmby  House,  not  unwillingly ;  and  it  was  the  question  of 
a  moment  whether  he  could  not  be  set  upon  his  throne  on  terms 


200  THE   CROWNLESS   MONARCH. 

which  might  give  to  Cromwell's  party  a  guarantee  for  the  religious 
liberty  they  sought.  But  Charles  proved  now,  as  always,  imprac- 
ticable. His  coronation  oath  would  not  allow  episcopacy  to  be 
abolished,  though  it  had  suffered  the  daily  infraction  of  Magna 
Charta. 

At  length,  the  king  fled  from  Hampton  Court  to  the  Isle  of 
Wight ;  and,  by  a  resolution  of  the  two  houses  that  they  would 
treat  with  him  no  more,  was  virtually  dethroned,  and  made  a  pris- 
oner in  Carisbrook  Castle.  The  Scotch  raised  an  army  to  deliver 
the  king  from  sectaries,  and  the  second  civil  war  began.  This 
war  will  be  understood  to  have  been  a  contest  for  liberty  against 
parliamentary  uniformity. 

We  cannot  better  describe  the  position  of  affairs  than  by  an 
extract  from  Neal :  "  The  army  =^  had  been  six  months  in  the  field, 
this  summer,  engaged  against  the  cavaliers  and  Scots,  who  being  now 
reduced  and  subdued,  they  began  to  express  a  high  dissatisfaction 
with  the  present  treaty,  because  no  provision  had  been  made  for 
their  darling  point,  liberty  of  conscience.  Here  they  had  just 
reason  for  complaint,  but  ought  not  to  have  relieved  themselves  by 
the  methods  and  at  the  expense  they  did.  They  were  thoroughly 
incensed  against  the  king  and  his  cavaliers  on  one  hand,  and  the 
high  presbyterians  on  the  other.  It  appeared  to  them  that  the 
king's  sentiments  in  religion  and  politics  were  not  changed ;  that 
he  would  always  be  raising  new  commotions  till  things  returned  to 
their  former  channel,  and  in  the  present  treaty  he  had  yielded 
nothing  but  through  constraint ;  and  that  when  he  was  restored  to 
his  throne,  after  all  the  blood  that  had  been  shed,  they  should 
neither  be  safe  in  their  lives  or  fortunes.  On  the  other  hand,  if 
protestant  uniformity  should  take  place  by  virtue  of  the  present 
treaty,  their  condition  would  be  little  mended;  for  (said  they),  if 
the  king  himself  cannot  obtain  liberty  to  have  the  common  prayer 
read  privately  in  his  own  family,  what  must  the  independents  and 

*  It  is  important  to  remember  that  the  body  termed  "  the  army  "  was  not  at 
this  period  a  band  of  mercenaries,  but  a  collection  of  sober  citizens,  whom  reli- 
gious persecution  had  driven  to  take  up  arms  against  the  king. 


THE  CROWNLESS   MONARCH.  201 

sectaries  expect  ?  What  have  we  been  contending  for,  if,  after  all 
the  hazards  we  have  run,  presbytery  is  to  be  exalted,  and  we  are 
to  he  banished  our  country  or  driven  into  corners  ?  "  ^ 

In  the  present  crisis,  days  of  fasting  and  prayer  were  instituted 
by  the  army  at  their  head-quarters  in  St.  Albans.  The  result 
was  the  presentation  of  a  remonstrance,  demanding  that  the  king 
be  brought  to  justice ;  that  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  the  Duke  of 
York  be  required  to  surrender,  or  be  declared  incapable  of  gov- 
erning ;  and  that  henceforth  no  king  be  admitted  but  by  the  peo- 
ple's free  election. 

Other  prompt  measures  followed  up  this  remonstrance.  A 
party  of  horse  was  marched  to  the  Isle  of  Wight  to  secure  the 
king.  The  army,  with  Fairfax  at  its  head,  posted  itself  in  Lon- 
don, and  the  troops  were  quartered  about  Whitehall  and  St.  James' 
with  the  assurance  that  the  property  of  the  people  should  not  be 
disturbed. 

It  is  impossible  for  us  to  follow  Cromwell  through  the  vigorous 
Scottish  campaigns  by  which  (contemporaneously  with  the  above 
movements)  this  second  civil  war  was  distinguished.  An  extract 
from  a  letter,  addressed  by  Cromwell  to  the  House  of  Commons, 
is,  however,  worth  the  quotation  :  "I  do  think  the  afifairs  of  Scot- 
land are  in  a  thriving  posture  as  to  the  interests  of  honest  men ; 
and  Scotland  is  like  to  be  a  better  neighbor  to  you  now  than  when 
the  great  pretenders  to  the  covenant,  and  religion,  and  treaties, — 
I  mean  Duke  Hamilton,  the  Earls  of  Lauderdale,  Traquhar,  Car- 
negy,  and  their  confederates, — had  the  power  in  their  hands.  I 
dare  to  say  that  that  party,  with  their  pretences,  had  not  only 
thought  the  treachery  of  some  in  England  (who  have  cause  to 
blush)  endangered  the  whole  state  and  kingdom  of  England,  but 
also  brought  Scotland  into  such  a  condition  as  that  no  honest 
man,  who  had  the  fear  of  God,  or  a  conscience  of  religion  and  the 
just  ends  of  the  covenant  and  treaties,  could  have  a  being  in  that 
kingdom."  This  extract  will  show  on  what  principles  Oliver 
Cromwell's  campaign  was  undertaken. 

*  NeaJ,  vol.  m.,  p.  485. 


202  THE    CROWNLESS    MONARCH. 

During  the  subsequent  proceedings,  Cromwell  was  a  constant 
attendant  in  his  place  in  the  House  of  Commons.  He  had  nar- 
rowly escaped  being  committed  to  the  Tower  in  June,  164^,  by 
leaving  London  early.  At  this  time,  he  is  described  by  Mrs. 
Hutchinson  as  being  "  uncorruptibly  faithful  to  his  trust  and  to  the 
people's  interest."  Ireton,  Cromwell's  son-in-law,  had,  up  to  a 
late  period,  been  of  opinion  that  Charles  might  even  yet  be 
brought  to  a  safe  adjustment.  But  an  expression  of  the  king's, 
added  to  many  others,  undeceived  him.  On  one  occasion  the  king 
said,  "  I  shall  play  my  game  as  well  as  I  can."  To  which  Ireton 
replied,  significantly,  "  If  your  majesty  has  a  game  to  play,  you 
must  give  us  also  the  liberty  to  play  ours."  It  would  appear  that 
Cromwell  had  for  some  time  hesitated  respecting  the  proceedings  to 
be  taken  in  reference  to  the  king.  He  said,  "  If  any  man  moved 
this  of  choice  or  design,  he  should  think  him  the  greatest  traitor 
in  thoi world;  but,  since  Providence  and  necessity  had  cast  them 
upon  it,  he  should  pray  God  to  bless  their  counsels,  though  he 
was  not  provided  on  the  sudden  to  give  them  advice."  Burnet 
says,  "  ireton  was  the  person  that  drove  it  on.  Cromwell  was  all 
the  while  in  some  suspense  about  it."  =^ 

"Were  we  compiling  a  general  history,  it  would  be  necessary  to 
enter  at  large  upon  the  constitutional  and  moral  questions  which 
were  involved  in  the  execution  of  the  king.  As  it  is,  we  must  leave 
them  to  the  reader's  own  consideration,  simply  observing  that,  to 
regard  the  matter  aright,  it  must  be  looked  at  in  connection  with 
the  recent  deaths  of  Strafford  and  Laud,  and  that  the  religious 
party  who  advocated  the  former  stand  upon  disadvantageous 
ground  in  condemning  the  latter.  Nor  will  we  stay  to  record  the 
deliberate  and  public  manner  in  which  that  deed  was  executed,  as 
an  act  which  its  perpetrators  by  no  means  shrank  from  avowing ; 
nor  tell  how  the  death  of  the  king  pierced  the  nation  to  the  centre 
of  its  sympathies,  and  tended  materially  to  shake  the  foundations 
oi  the  new  commonwealth.     No  edifices  are  more  insecure  than 

♦  Burnet's  History  of  His  Own  Times,  vol.  i.,  p.  46. 


THE    CROWNLESS   MONARCH.  203 

those  which  are  cemented  with  blood.  A  terrible  spirit  of  Juda- 
ical  severity  pervaded  the  whole  transaction,  —  a  spirit  only  legit- 
imate when  inspired  by  direct  divine  sanction,  and,  lacking  that, 
formidable  and  most  dangerous.  Cromwell  was  not  the  proposer 
of  the  measure ;  but,  by  the  part  he  performed  in  it,  he  volunta- 
rily undertook  its  large  responsibility.^ 

The  remnant  of  the  assembly  of  divines  at  Westminster  pro- 
tested unanimously  against  the  execution  of  the  king,  and  on 
behalf  of  the  solemn  league  and  covenant  which  was  intended  to 
secure  his  person.  A  remonstrance  to  this  effect  was  signed  by 
the  most  eminent  London  ministers.  Neal  says,  "  None  of  their 
ministers,  that  I  know  of,  declare  their  approbation  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  council  of  officers  in  the  trial  of  the  king,  except 
Hugh  Peters  and  John  Godwin."  Many  of  the  independent  min- 
isters, though  dissatisfied  with  the  treaty  of  Newport,  because  it 
denied  toleration  to  them,  joined  with  their  brethren  in  protesting 
against  the  king's  execution ;  whilst  the  commissioners  of  the 
Scottish  Kirk  denounced  the  proceeding,  and  wrote  a  letter  to 
the  ministers  of  London,  exhorting  them  to  persevere  in  their 
opposition  to  the  House  of  Commons,  and  to  a  general  toleration. 
It  is  evident  that  at  this  time  the  jparliament  had  not  determined 
what  form  of  government  was  most  desirable,  and  that  the  execu- 
tion of  the  king  was  not  the  act  of  any  one  party  alone,  seeing 
that  there  were,  then  in  the  house  "  men  of  all  parties,  —  episco- 
palians, presbyterians,  independents,  anabaptists,  and  others." 

Cromwell's  defence  of  his  course  will  be  found  in  the  memoir 
prefixed  to  the  state  letters  of  Lord  Broghill.  The  writer  says, 
"  One  time  particularly,  in  the  year  1649,  when  Lord  Broghill 
was  riding  with  Cromwell  on  one  side  of  him  and  Ireton  on 
the  other,  they  fell  into  discourse  about  the  late  king's  death. 
Cromwell  declared  that  if  the  king  had  followed  his  own  mind, 
and  had  had  trusty  servants  about  him,  he  had  fooled  them  all ; 

*  Dr.  Owen  preached  before  parliament  on  the  day  following  the  decapita- 
tion of  the  king.  But  he  evidently  avoided  expressing  any  distinct  opinion  on 
the  procedure. 


204  THE   CROWNLESS   MONARCH. 

and  further  said  that  once  they  had  a  mind  to  have  closed  with 
him ;  but  upon  something  that  happened,  they  fell  off  from  their 
design  again.  My  lord,  finding  Cromwell  and  Ireton  in  good 
humor,  and  no  other  person  within  hearing,  asked  them  if  ho 
might  be  so  bold  as  to  desire  an  account :  1.  Why  they  once 
would  have  closed  with  the  king  ?  and  2.  Why  they  did  not  ? 
Cromwell  very  freely  told  him  that  he  would  satisfy  him  in  both 
his  queries.  The  reason,  says  he,  why  we  would  once  have  closed 
with  the  king  was  this  :  we  found  that  the  Scots  and  the  presby- 
terians  began  to  be  more  powerful  than  we  ;  and  if  they  had  made 
up  matters  with  the  king,  we  should  have  been  left  in  the  lurch, 
—  therefore  we  thought  it  best  to  prevent  them,  by  offering  first  to 
come  in  upon  any  reasonable  conditions.  But  while  we  were  busied 
with  these  thoughts,  there  came  a  letter  from  one  of  our  spies  who 
was  of  the  king's  bedchamber,  which  acquainted  us  that  on  that 
day  our  doom  was  decreed ;  that  he  could  not  possibly  tell  what  it 
was,  but  we  might  find  it  out  if  we  could  intercept  a  letter  from 
the  king  to  the  queen,  wherein  he  declared  what  he  would  do. 
The  letter,  he  said,  was  sewed  in  the  skirt  of  a  saddle,  and  the 
bearer  of  it  would  come  with  the  saddle  upon  his  head,  about  ten 
o'clock  that  night,  to  the  Blue  Boar  Inn,  in  Holborn ;  for  there 
he  was  to  take  horse  and  go  to  Dover  with  it.  This  messenger 
knew  nothing  of  the  document  in  the  saddle,  but  some  persons  in 
Dover  did."  The  letter  is  intercepted.  "  As  soon  as  we  had  it 
we  opened  it,  in  which  we  found  the  king  had  acquainted  the 
queen  that  he  was  now  courted  by  both  factions,  the  Scotch  pres- 
byterians  and  the  army,  and  which  bid  fairest  for  him  should  have 
him ;  but  he  thought  he  should  close  with  the  Scots  sooner  than 
the  other,  &c.  Upon  this,  added  Cromwell,  we  took  horse  and 
went  to  Windsor ;  and,  finding  we  were  not  likely  to  have  any 
tolerable  terms  from  the  king,  we  immediately,  from  that  time  for- 
ward, resolved  his  ruin." 

The  constitution  of  England  was  now  completely  changed.  The 
House  of  Commons  was  proclaimed  the  supreme  authority ;  the 
Prince  of  Wales  was  dismherited;  the  House  of  Lords  abolished; 


THE   CROWNLESS   MONARCH.  205 

the  office  of  king  declared  unnecessary  and  dangerous ;  the  execu- 
tive power  lodged  in  a  council  of  state ;  the  oaths  of  allegiance 
and  supremacy  abandoned,  and  supplanted  by  the  "  engagement," 
—  a  declaration  that  the  person  taking  it  would  be  "  true  and 
faithful  to  the  government  established  without  king  or  house  of 
peers."  Cromwell,  with  his  army,  departed  for  Ireland,  to  quell 
the  catholic  insurrection. 

Before  he  embarked,  he  addressed  a  letter  for  the  parliament, 
recommending  the  abandonment  of  penal  laws  relating  to  religion. 
The  house  accordingly  brought  in  an  act  "  for  the  approbation  of 
able  and  well-qualified  persons  to  be  made  ministers,  who  cannot 
comply  with  the  present  ordinance  for  ordination  of  ministers." 
At  the  same  time  an  act  was  passed,  at  the  instance  of  General 
Fairfax  and  his  council  of  officers,  to  abandon  all  penal  statutes 
which  offijnded  weak  consciences,  excepting,  however,  from  the 
indulgence,  all  papists,  or  favorers  of  the  late  hierarchy,  and  pro- 
viding for  the  punishment  of  immorality  and  profaneness.  No 
minister  was  capable  of  presentation  to  any  living,  unless  within  six 
months  he  took  the  engagement  publicly  before  his  congregation. 

This  was  very  partial  justice,  if  indeed  it  was  justice  at  all. 
Many  ministers,  accordingly,  refused  to  abide  by  the  test,  and 
would  not  keep  the  fast-days  appointed  by  the  government.  In 
these  protests  the  presbyterians  were  especially  prominent.  In 
the  mean  time,  the  Scotch  commissioners,  supported  by  the  Eng- 
lish presbyterians,  were  treating  with  young  Charles  in  Holland, 
with  a  view  to  obtaining  his  subscription  to  the  covenant. 

Cromwell's  campaign  in  Ireland  was,  like  its  author,  storn, 
prompt,  terrible ;  undertaken  and  executed  upon  principles  suffi- 
ciently intelligible,  but  open,  like  the  rest  of  his  actions,  to  large 
questioning.  The  cruelties  which  had  been  practised  upon  prot- 
estants  had  inflamed  his  spirit.  He  felt  that  so  dangerous  a  party 
as  excited  "  papists  "  must  be  dealt  with  as  the  highest  class  of 
enemies ;  and,  anticipating  a  general  movement  in  Scotland  conse- 
quent upon  the  death  of  the  king,  it  was  requisite  that  no  time 
should  be  lost.  Cromwell  was  not  by  nature  cruel ;  on  the  con- 
18 


I7BR 


206  THE    CROWNLESS    MONARCH. 

trarj,  the  letters  which  are  preserved  at  this  date,  in  reference  to 
the  marriage  treaty  he  had  just  concluded  on  behalf  of  his  son, 
alFord  evidence  of  the  softest  tenderness.  But,  whilst  some  of  his 
protestantism  was  principle,  some  of  it  was  passion ;  and  Crom- 
well's military  mind  saw  but  one  way  to  an  object,  and  that  the 
shortest.  His  red  right  hand  avenged  the  persecutions  of  his 
brethren.  We  hasten  over  a  page  which  the  religion  of  Christ, 
in  its  gentleness,  forgiveness,  and  loving  persuasion,  trembles  to 
peruse.  Ireland  was  subdued  :  the  flame  of  its  disafifection  quenched 
in  blood.  The  spirit  of  the  campaign  is  sufficiently  indicated  by 
Cromwell's  own  manifesto :  "  You,  unprovoked,  put  the  English  to 
the  most  unheard-of  and  most  barbarous  massacre, — without  respect 
of  sex  or  age, — that  ever  the  sun  beheld.  And  at  a  time  when 
Ireland  was  in  perfect  peace,  and  when,  through  the  example  of 
English  industry,  through  commerce  and  traffic,  that  which  was  in 
the  natives'  hands  was  better  to  them  than  if  all  Ireland  had  been 
in  their  possession,  and  not  an  Englishman  in  it.  And  yet  then, 
I  say,  was  this  unheard-of  villany  perpetrated  by  your  instigation, 
who  boast  of '  peace-making'  and  '  union  against  the  common  enemy.' 
What  think  you,  by  this  time,  is  not  my  assertion  true  ?  Is  God, 
will  God  be,  with  you  ? 

^A.  ^  -if*  ^  .it..  JA, 

•vv"  vf"  w  "TV*  ^  "fr 

"  He  that  bids  us  *  contend  for  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the 
saints '  tells  us  that  we  should  do  it  by  '  avoiding  the  spirit  of 
Cain,  Corah,  and  Balaam  : '  and  by  '  building  up  ourselves  in  the 
most  holy  faith,'  not  pinning  it  upon  other  men's  sleeves.  Pray- 
ing '  in  the  Holy  Ghost : '  not  mumbling  over  matins.  Keeping 
'  ourselves  in  the  love  of  God : '  not  destroying  men  because  they 
will  not  be  of  our  faith.  '  Waiting  for  the  mercy  of  Jesus  Christ : ' 
not  cruel,  but  merciful.  But,  alas  !  why  is  this  said  ?  why  are 
these  pearls  cast  before  you  ?  You  are  resolved  not  to  be  charmed 
from  '  using  the  instrument  of  a  foolish  shepherd.'  You  are  a  part 
of  Antichrist,  whose*  kingdom  the  Scripture  so  expressly  speaks 
should  be  *  laid  in  blood ; '  yea,  '  in  the  blood  of  the  saints.'  You 
have  shed  great  store  of  that  already;  and  ere  it  be  long,  you  nuist 


THE   CROWNLESS   MONARCH.  207 

all  of  you  have  '  blood  to  drink ; ' '  even  the  dregs  of  the  cup  of  the 
fury  and  the  wrath  of  God,  which  will  be  poured  out  unto  you.' 

')^  ^  #  ^  ^  # 

"  First,  therefore :  I  shall  not,  where  I  have  power,  and  the 
Lord  is  pleased  to  bless  me,  suffer  the  exercise  of  the  mass  where 
I  can  take  notice  of  it.  '  No,'  nor  '  in  any  way '  suffer  you  that 
are  papists,  where  I  can  find  you  seducing  the  pA)ple,  or  by  any 
overt  act  violating  the  laws  established ;  but  if  you  come  into 
my  hands,  I  shall  cause  to  be  inflicted  the  punishments  appointed 
by  the  laws,  to  use  your  own  terms,  secundum  gravitatem  delicti, 
upon  you ;  and  shall  try  to  reduce  things  to  their  former  state  on 
this  behalf.  As  for  the  people,  what  thoughts  they  have  in  their 
own  breasts  I  cannot  reach ;  but  shall  think  it  my  duty,  if  they 
walk  honestly  and  peaceably,  not  to  cause  them  in  the  least  to 
suffer  for  the  same.  And  shall  endeavor  to  walk  patiently  and  in 
love  towards  them,  to  see  if  at  any  time  it  shall  please  God  to  give 
them  another  or  a  better  mind.  And  all  men  under  the  power  of 
England  within  this  dominion  are  hereby  required  and  enjoined 
strictly  and  religiously  to  do  the  same." 

Leaving  Ireton,  his  son-in-law,  as  the  lord-deputy  of  Ireland, 
Cromwell  next  marched,  Fairfax  having  resigned  his  command, 
against  the  Scotch.  A  new  position  had  been  taken  by  that 
nation.  They  had  proclaimed  Prince  Charles  their  king ;  had 
"  compelled  him  voluntarily,"  as  Carlyle  says,  to  take  the  cove- 
nant ;  and  Charles  is  now  on  his  way  to  be  crowned  among  them. 
Anticipating  a  little,  we  may  remark  that  we  have  now  before  us 
"  a  sermon  preach'd  at  Scoon,  Jan.  1,  1651,  at  the  coronation  of 
Charles  the  Second.  "By  Robert  Dowglass,  minister  at  Edinburgh, 
moderator  of  the  comiiiission  of  the  General  Assembly."  The  text 
is  2  Kings  11 :  12,  17,  —  "  And  he  brought  forth  the  king's  son  and 
put  the  crown  upon  him,  and  gave  him  the  testimony,  and  they 
made  him  king,  and  anointed  him,  and  they  clapt  their  hands  and 
said,  God  save  the  king.  And  Jehoiada  made  a  covenant  between 
the  Lord  and  the  king,  and  the  people  that  they  should  be  the 
Lord's  people,  between  the  king  also  and  the  people." 


20S  THE   CEOWNLESS    MONARCH, 

In  the  course  of  this  sermon  the  preacher  declaims  against  ana- 
baptists, photinians,  levellers  and  republicans,  and  tells  the  king 
that  he  has  covenanted  to  maintain  the  true  reformed  religion,  "  to 
extirpate  popery,  prelacy,  superstition,  heresy,  schism,  and  pro- 
faneness  ;  "  to  punish  "  malignants  and  evil  instruments."  "  Sir, 
you  are  in  covenant  with  God  and  his  people,  and  are  obliged  to 
maintain  presb^terian  government  as  well  against  Erastians  as 
sectaries."  "  Another  example  I  give  you,  yet  in  recent  memory, 
of  your  grandfather,  King  James.  He  happened  to  be  very  young 
in  a  time  full  of  difficulties ;  yet  there  was  a  godly  party  in  the 
land  who  put  the  crown  upon  his  head.  And  when  he  came  to 
some  years,  he  and  his  people  entered  into  the  covenant  with  God  : 
he  was  much  commended  by  godly  and  faithful  men ;  comparing 
him  of  young  Josiah  standing  at  the  altar  renewing  a  covenant 
with  God.  And  he  himself  did  thank  God  that  he  was  born  in  a 
reformed  faith,  better  reformed  than  England,  for  they  retained 
many  popish  ceremonies :  yea,  better  refoi-med  than  Geneva,  for 
they  keep  some  holy  days :  charging  his  people  to  be  constant,  and 
promising  himself  to  continue  in  that  reformation,  and  to  maintain 
the  same.  Notwithstanding  of  all  this  he  made  a  foul  defection  : 
he  remembered  not  the  kindness  of  them  who  had  held  the  crown 
upon  his  head  :  yea,  he  persecuted  faithful  ministers  for  opposing 
that  course  of  defection.  He  never  rested  till  he  had  undone 
presbyterian  government  and  kirk  assemblies,  setting  up  bishops, 
and  bringing  in  ceremonies,  against  which  he  had  formerly  given 
large  testimony.  In  a  word,  he  laid  the  foundation  whereupon 
his  son  our  late  king  did  build  much  mischief  to  religion  all  the 
days  of  his  life." 

The  sermon  over,  a  prayer  for  a  blessing  followed.  The  king 
then  renewed  the  covenants  —  that  taken  by  his  grandfather,  and 
the  solemn  league  and  covenant.  Another  prayer  was  then  offered 
for  grace  to  keep  these  covenants  well.  The  king  then  pledged 
himself,  with  his  right  hand  lifted  up  to  heaven,  to  approve  the 
covenant,  and  to  establish  presbyterian  government,  and  wrote  his 
name  to  the  parchment.     He  then  took  the  Scottish  coronation 


THE    CROWNLESS    MONARCH.  209 

oath,  and  was  girded  with  the  sword,  the  lord  great  constable 
saying  : 

"  Keceive  this  kingly  sword  for  the  defence  of  the  faith  of 
Christ,  and  protection  of  his  kirk  and  of  the  true  religion,  as  it  is 
presently  professed  within  this  kingdom,  and  according  to  the 
national  covenant  and  league  and  covenant,  and  for  executing 
justice  and  equity,"  &c.  &c.  Then  the  king,  after  other  cere- 
monies, was  crowned,  and  when  he  was  seated  on  the  throne  the 
minister  "  spoke  to  him  a  word  of  exhortation."  The  lords  after 
this,  holding  their  hands  between  the  king's  hands,  swore  the 
following  oath : 

"  By  the  eternal  and  almighty  God,  who  liveth  and  reigneth 
forever,  I  become  your  liege  man,  and  truth  and  faith  shall  bear 
unto  you,  and  live  and  die  with  you,  against  all  manner  of  folks 
whatsoever,  in  your  service,  according  to  the  national  covenant  and 
solemn  league  and  covenant,"  The  ceremony  was  concluded  by 
another  exhortation,  and  by  prayer,  singing,  and  the  benediction.'^ 

Such,  though  the  period  has  been  a  little  antedated,  was  the 
king,  and  such  the  system  which  Scotland  was  now  in  arms  to 
promote  !  It  was,  as  before,  a  war  for  a  national  presbyterial 
establishment.  Against  this  system,  and  against  this  future  king, 
Cromwell  is  now  marching  to  Scotland,  not  without  visions  of  what 
may  happen  should  he  be  successful  in  keeping  him  from  his 
hereditary  crown ! 

Cromwell's  Scottish  campaigns  are  most  interesting  and  instruct- 
ive. They  exhibit  the  same  man  that  we  saw  in  Ireland,  impul- 
sive, energetic,  absolute;  but  they  exhibit  him  in  his  better 
aspects. 

He  is  afterwards  seen  lying  at  Berwick ;  Leslie,  the  Scottish 
general,  in  front  of  Edinburgh.  From  this  point  the  English 
general  addresses  a  manifesto  to  the  people  of  Scotland :  "  Your 
own  guilt  is  too  much  for  you  to  bear ;  bring  not,  therefore,  upon 
yourselves  the  blood  of  innocent   men,  deceived  with  pretences 

»  The  PhoDnix. 
18* 


•21D  THE    CROWNLESS   MONARCH. 

of  king  and  covenant ;  from  whose  eyes  you  hide  a  better  knowl- 
edge. I  am  persuaded  that  divers  of  you,  who  lead  the  people, 
have  labored  to  build  yourselves  in  these  things ;  wherein  you 
have  censured  others,  and  established  yourselves  *  upon  the  Word 
of  God.'  Is  it,  therefore,  infallibly  agreeable  to  the  Word  of  God, 
all  that  7J0U  say  ?  I  beseech  you,  in  the  bowels  of  Christ,  think  it 
possible  you  may  be  mistaken." 

How  Cromwell  becomes  cooped  up  in  the  peninsula  on  which 
Dunbar  is  situated ;  how  his  forces  are  discouraged  at  their  posi- 
tioD;  whilst  Cromwell,  undaunted  in  trouble,  comforts  himself  with 
hope ;  how  Leslie  looks  upon  Oliver  as  altogether  undone ;  how 
the  weather  is  wet  and  stormy,  most  unfavorable  for  such  military 
movements  as  it  is  necessary  for  Cromwell  to  take ;  how  Leslie  is, 
in  an  unguarded  moment,  tempted  from  his  position  on  the  over- 
looking heights  ;  how  the  quick  eye  of  the  future  protector  detects 
the  error  of  his  antagonist ;  how  he  attacks  the  Scottish  general 
with  an  overwhelming  force,  routs  and  almost  destroys  his  army, 
and  compels  Leslie  to  enter  Edinburgh  as  a  fugitive,  we  cannot 
stay  to  record.^  It  is  the  turning-point  of  the  whole  campaign. 
The  covenant  is  tottering  again  !  It  is  finally  lost  at  the  great 
battle  of  Worcester,  where  Charles  narrowly  escapes  being  taken 
by  his  foes.  His  hopes  are  for  the  present  baffled.  The  crown 
has  faded  before  the  vision  of  the  covenanted  king  ! 

Who  wielded  the  power  of  that  throne  is  known.  By  what 
means  he  ascended  to  its  high  eminence  it  is  not  our  province  to 
record.  It  will  be  sufficient  to  mark  the  aspect  which  the  protect- 
orate of  Cromwell  bore  towards  the  great  questions  of  religious 
liberty. 

*  It  must  be  observed,  however,  as  characteristic  of  the  spirit  of  Cromwell's 
legislation,  that  when  he  arrived  in  Edinburgh,  while  he  put  down  the  General 
Assembly,  he  gave  the  Scotch  ministers  full  liberty  to  occupy  their  own  pulpits, 
though  they  declined  to  avail  themselves  of  it.  *'  I  verily  believe,"  says 
Kirkton,  in  his  History  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  "  there  were  more  souls 
converted  to  Christ  in  that  short  period  of  time,  —  that  is,  during  the  administra- 
tion of  Cromwell,  "  than  in  any  season  since  the  Reformation,  though  of  triple 
its  duration." 


THE   CROWNLESS   MONARCH.  211 

In  the  thirty-seventh  article  of  "  the  instrument  of  government " 
which  appointed  Cromwell  protector,  it  was  provided  that  "  all  who 
professed  faith  in  God  by  Jesus  Christ  should  be  protected  in  their 
religion."  This,  though  by  no  means  complete,  was  a  great  ad- 
vance upon  the  toleration  of  any  preceding  period.  Popery  and 
prelacy  were  indeed  excluded ;  but  rather  on  the  supposition  that 
they  were  political  than  because  they  were  religious  systems. 
Parliament,  however,  either  with  a  view  to  restrict  Cromwell's 
desired  toleration,  or  because  they  designed  to  bring  forward  a 
measure  for  the  propagation  of  the  gospel,^  appointed  a  committee 
of  fourteen  persons,  among  whom  were  Owen,  J.  Goodwin,  Mar- 
shall, Nye,  Manson  and  Baxter,  to  determine  what  were  the 
fundamentals  of  Christianity.  It  was  a  disputatious  meeting ; 
Baxter,  who,  in  the  case  of  the  assembly  of  divines,  complained 
of  the  logomachies  of  the  sectaries,  being  the  most  pertinacious  in 
it.  But  their  labors  were  stopped  by  the  dissolution  of  the  parlia- 
ment. Cromwell  himself,  according  to  the  testimony  of  Baxter, 
declared  that  "  he  could  not  understand  what  the  magistrate  had 
to  do  in  matters  of  religion  ;  he  thought  that  all  men  should  be 
left  to  the  liberty  of  their  own  consciences,  and  that  the  magistrate 
could  not  interpose  without  ensnaring  himself  in  the  guilt  of  perse- 
cution."    And  these  were  the  protector's  own  words  :  t 

"  Have  we  not  lately  labored  under  the  weight  of  persecution, 
and  is  it  fit  then  to  sit  heavy  on  others  ?  Is  it  ingenuous  to  ask 
liberty,  and  not  to  give  it  ?  What  greater  hypocrisy  than  for 
those  who  were  oppressed  by  the  bishops  to  become  the  greatest 

*  Orme's  Life  of  Owen,  p.  150. 

f  During  his  protectorship,  Cromwell  called  a  conference  in  his  drawing-room 
respecting  the  toleration  of  the  Jews,  a  measure  advised  by  some  of  his  high- 
ness' judges.  The  conference  was  composed  of  judges,  citizens,  and  divines. 
Among  the  latter  were  Owen,  Goodwin,  Cudworth,  and  Bridge.  The  laymen 
aflBrmed  ;  the  divines  denied.  Cromwell's  patience  was,  at  length,  wearied  ; 
he  told  them  he  had  hoped  they  would  thi-ow  some  light  on  the  subject,  but 
that  they  had  rendered  the  matter  more  obscure  than  before  ;  he,  therefore, 
wished  no  more  of  their  counsels,  but  desired  an  interest  in  their  prayers.  The 
project  came  to  no  i-esult. 


212  THE    CROWNLESS   MONARCH. 

oppressors  themselves  so  soon  as  their  yoke  is  removed  ?  ^  * 
As  for  profane  persons,  blasphemers,  such  as  preach  sedition,  con- 
tentious railers,  e^il-speakers,  who  seek  by  evil  words  to  corrupt 
good  manners,  and  persons  of  evil  conversation,  punishment  from 
the  civil  magistrate  ought  to  meet  with  them,"  &c. 

The  notion  of  a  "  Christian  nation  " —  that  lamentable  confound- 
ing of  an  external  with  a  spiritual  religion  —  was  clearly  upper- 
most in  Cromwell's  mind,  and  it  was  a  gigantic  error.  But  within 
these  limits  he  intrenched  himself  most  firmly  : 

"  Men  who  believe  in  Jesus  Christ  —  that  is  the  form  that 
gives  being  to  true  religion.  ^  ^  Whoever  hath  this  faith,  let 
his  form  be  what  it  will,  he  walking  peaceably,  without  prejudice 
to  others  under  other  forms,  it  is  a  debt  due  to  God  and  Christ ; 
and  he  will  require  it  if  that  Christian  may  not  enjoy  his  liberty. 
If  a  man  of  one  form  will  be  trampling  upon  the  heels  of  another 
form,  —  if  an  independent,  for  example,  will  despise  him  under  bap- 
tism, and  will  revile  him,  and  reproach,  and  provoke  him,  —  I  will 
NOT  SUFFER  IT  IN  HIM.  If,  ou  the  othcr  sidc,  those  of  the  ana- 
baptist" (sentiment)  "  shall  be  censuring  the  godly  ministers  of  the 
nation  who  profess  under  that  of  independency ;  or  if  those  that 
profess  under  presbytery  shall  be  reproaching  or  speaking  evil  of 
them,  traducing  and  censuring  them,  —  as  I  would  not  be  willing 
to  see  the  day  when  England  shall  be  in  the  power  of  the  presby- 
tery to  impose  upon  the  consciences  of  others  that  profess  faith  in 
Christ,  —  so  I  will  not  endure  any  reproach  to  them.  But  God 
give  us  hearts  and  spirits  to  keep  all  things  equal !  "=^ 

These  were  noble  sentiments  !  And,  though  they  were  dashed 
with  matters  not  altogether  palatable  to  modern  tastes,  such  as  the 
maintenance  of  ministers  by  a  state  provision,  —  at  present  by  the 
tithes  of  the  old  episcopal  clergy,  t  —  they  give  us  a  striking  view 

*  Speech  to  Protector's  Second  Parliament.     Carlyle,  vol.  iv.,  pp.  123,  124. 

t  The  appointment  of  Tryers,  which  were  thirty -eight  in  number,  and  con- 
sisted of  independents,  presbyterians  and  baptists,  was,  perhaps,  as  good  as 
any  such  measure  could  be.  Baxter  himself  praises  the  body  and  their  useful- 
ness to  the  community.    But  such  a  measure  must  be  attended,  it  is  evident. 


IHE   CROWNLESS   MONARCH.  213 

of  what  was  the  true  nature  of  Cromwell's  ambition,  —  that  of 
being  not  a  monarch  of  precedents  and  conventionalities,  of 
gilded  crowns  and  red  cushions,  but,  in  the  largest  sense  of  the 
term,  a  king  of  men  ! 

None  is  prepared  rightly  to  estimate  Cromwell's  character  and 
conduct,  without  the  fairest  examination  of  the  elements  with 
which  he  was  required  to  deal,  and  of  the  unpropitious  demands 
bj  which  he  was  surrounded.  Even  the  greatest  admirers  of  the 
superiority  of  right  over  policy  will  not  find  the  question  compress- 
ible into  a  very  narrow  compass.  But  it  was  the  day  when 
"  there  was  no  king  in  Israel,  but  every  man  did  that  which  was 
right  in  his  own  eyes."  Cromwell  did  what  was  right  in  his  eyes, 
and  he  saved  the  nation  from  anarchy  and  confusion.  Yet,  success- 
ful as,  in  its  immediate  results,  his  strong-handed  policy  might 
have  been,  the  admirer  of  right  versus  might  may  still  believe 
that  a  different  course  would  have  been  attended  with  less  ulti- 
mate reaction.  But  Cromwell  was  no  yielding  Apollo,  who  would 
let  every  upstart  Phaeton  step  into  his  chariot,  and  possess  him- 
self of  the  reins  of  a  most  difficult  government.  He  believed  him- 
self, like  one  of  the  judges  of  ancient  Israel,  called,  by  an 
authority  which  superseded  ordinary  precedent,  to  a  certain  work, 
and  he  did  that  work.  We  do  not  defend  the  integrity  of  the 
whole  premiss ;  but,  admitting  it,  it  is  impossible  to  deny  the  com- 
pleteness of  the  conclusion.  "  We  are  ready,"  said  he,  "  to  excuse 
most  of  our  actions,  —  and  justify  them  too,  as  well  as  to  excuse 
them,  —  upon  the  ground  of  necessity.  The  ground  of  necessity, 
for  justifying  men's  actions,  is  above  all  considerations  of  instituted 
law  ;  and  if  this  or  any  other  state  should  go  about  —  as  I  know 
they  never  will  —  to  make  laws  against  events,  against  what  ?nay . 
happen,  I  think  it  obvious  to  any  man  they  will  be  making  laws 
against  Providence ;  events  and  issues  of  things  being  from  God 
alone,  to  whom  all  issues  belong."^ 

by  great  occasional  injustice.  It  was  only  at  Owen's  strong  intercessions  that 
Pococke,  the  Orientalist,  and  Fuller,  the  church  historian,  retained  their  posi- 
tions in  the  church. 

*  Speech  to  Second  Protectorate  Parliament,  1656.    Carlyle,  vol.  iv.,  p.  95. 


214  THE   CROWNLESS   MONARCH. 

Of  Cromwell's  conviction  of  this  divine  call,  how  questionable 
or  dangerous  soever  the  precedent  thuiJ  established  may  be,  there 
is  not  the  slightest  valid  reason  for  doubt.  That  he  was  accessible 
to  fanaticism  may  be  granted  ;  that  he  was  a  deep  designing  hypo- 
crite is  a  calumny,  such  as  could  only  arise  out  of  the  doctrine  of 
Charles'  divine  right  to  tread  down  his  subjects  on  the  one  hand, 
or  out  of  an  ignorance  of  the  spiritual  liberty  which  Cromwell 
sought  to  promote,  and  which  he  mainly  did  promote,  on  the  other. 

These  points  in  Cromwell's  character  may  be  extensively  illus- 
trated by  reference  to  his  extant  memorials.  The  following  extract 
from  a  letter,  which  appears  among  the  "  Squire  Papers  "  of  Car- 
lyle's  edition,  is  remarkable,  and  we  leave  the  reader  to  estimate  it 
for  himself. 

"  To 

"  London,  July,  1642. 

"  Dear  Friends  :  Your  letters  gave  me  great  joy  at  reading 
your  great  progress  in  behalf  of  our  great  cause. 

"Verily,  I  do  think  the  Lord  is  with  me!  I  do  undertake 
strange  things,  yet  do  I  go  through  with  them,  to  great  profit  and 
gladness,  and  furtherance  of  the  Lord's  great  work.  I  do  feel 
myself  lifted  on  by  a  strange  force,  I  cannot  tell  why.  By  night 
and  by  day  I  am  urged  forward  on  the  great  work.  As  sure  as 
God  appeared  to  Joseph  in  a  dream,  also  to  Jacob,  he  also  has 
directed  —  {some  words  eaten  out  by  moths.)  Therefore  I  shall 
not  fear  what  man  can  do  unto  me.  I  feel  He  giveth  me  the 
light  to  see  the  great  darkness  that  surrounds  us  at  noon  day.  *  ^ 

"  I  hoped,  in  a  private  capacity,  to  have  reaped  the  fruit  and 
benefit,  together  with  my  brethren,  of  our  hard  labor  and  hazards; 
the  enjoyment,  to  wit,  of  peace  and  liberty,  and  the  privileges  of  a 
Christian  and  a  man,  in  some  equality  with  others,  according  as  it 
should  please  the  Lord  to  dispense  unto  me.  And  when,  I  say, 
God  had  put  an  end  to  our  wars,  or  at  least  brought  them  to  a 
very  hopeful  issue,  very  near  an  end,  —  after  Worcester  fight,  — 
I  came  up  to  London  to  pay  my  service  and  duty  to  the  parlia- 
ment which  then  sat ;  hoping  that  all  minda  would  have  been  dis- 


THE   CROWNLESS   MONARCH.  215 

posed  to  answer  what  seemed  to  be  the  mind  of  God,  namely,  To 
give  peace  and  rest  to  his  people,  and  especially  to  those  who  had 
bled  more  than  others  in  the  carrying  on  of  the  military  affairs.  I 
was  much  disappointed  of  my  expectation ;  for  the  issue  did  not 
prove  so.  Whatever  may  be  boasted  or  misrepresented,  it  was  not 
so,  not  so !  " 

Again :  — 

"  I  appeal  to  the  Lord,  that  the  desires  and  endeavors  we  have 
had  —  nay,  the  things  will  speak  for  themselves :  the  liberty  of 
England,  the  liberty  of  the  people;  the  avoiding  of  tyrannous 
impositions,  either  upon  men  as  men,  or  Christians  as  Christians ; 
is  made  so  safe  by  this  act  of  settlement  —  the  Protectorate  —  that 
it  will  speak  for  itself  And  when  it  shall  appear  to  the  world 
what  really  hath  been  said  and  done  by  all  of  us,  and  what  our 
real  transactions  were  —  for  God  can  discover  ;  no  privilege  will 
hinder  the  Lord  from  discovering ! " 

It  is  difficult  to  understand  on  what  supposition,  except  that  of 
divine  right,  Cromwell's  conduct  in  desiring  to  be  king,  even  sup- 
posing that  he  did  desire  it,  is  to  be  represented  as  of  such  incon- 
ceivable enormity.  As  protector,  he  enjoyed  more  real  power, 
though  less  state,  than  he  could  have  possessed  had  he  brought 
himself,  by  the  acceptance  of  the  royal  title,  within  the  definitions 
and  provisions  of  British  law.  To  be  king,  was  not,  therefore, 
his  interest.  But  he  evidently  desired  it,  in  order  to  settle  his 
government,  to  put  an  end  to  the  distracting  influences  which  raged 
around  him,  and  to  render  the  recovered  liberties  of  the  English 
people  permanent.  But  such  a  thing  might  not  be.  The  officers 
of  the  army,  conspicuous  among  whom  were  Fleetwood  and  Des- 
borough,  his  own  son-in-law  and  brother-in-law,  resisted  it,  and 
presented  a  petition  drawn  up  by  Dr.  Owen,"^  and  signed  by  a 
majority  of  the  officers  near  town,  which  determined  the  question. 
England  by  this  course  lost  a  race  of  monarchs  called  to  the  throne 
by  the  popular  voice ;  went  back  to  its  old  oppressors ;  smarted 

*  Owen  appears  to  have  lost,  by  this  act,  Cromwell's  favor.  Orme's  Life  of 
Owen,  p   165. 


216  THE   CROWNLESS   MONARCH. 

beneath  the  rod  of  their  vengeance  or  their  folly ;  and,  after  a  few 
years,  called  for  another  revolution,  to  throw  oif  its  oppressive 
burden. 

It  was  a  frequent  declaration  of  Cromwell's,  that  the  course  of 
his  life  was  one  great  aim  to  promote  religious  freedom.  Was  he 
insincere  in  this  affirmation  ?  Let  his  conduct  in  the  matter  of  the 
Piedmontese  bear  witness ! 

The  persecutions  instituted  by  the  Duke  of  Savoy  agMnst  the 
poor  protestants  who  occupied  the  mountains  and  valleys  of  Pied- 
mont were  of  the  most  atrocious  description.  The  duke  published 
an  order,  dated  January  25,  1655,  commanding  all  protestants  to 
depart  from  their  homes  to  such  places  as  he  should  appoint,  within 
three  days,  on  pain  of  death  and  confiscation.  This  was  in  the 
depth  of  a  most  severe  winter,  and  many  peiished  in  the  moun- 
tains from  hunger  and  cold.  The  most  cruel  barbarities  were  per- 
petrated on  those  who  remained.  Many  men  and  women  were 
hewn  in  pieces,  others  were  ravished  and  murdered.  Some,  hung 
on  hooks,  were  left  so  to  expire.  Some  had  their  mouths  filled 
with  gunpowder,  which  was  made  to  explode.  Some  were  flayed 
alive ;  some  burned  alive ;  and  a  variety  of  other  tortures,  too 
numerous  or  too  barbarous  to  relate,  signalized  the  infuriate  malice 
borne  by  Italian  Romanists  to  gospel  truth.  It  was,  in  fact,  all 
but  an  extermination ;  churches  were  set  on  fire,  full  of  miserable 
fugitives,  and  families  hunted  like  wild  beasts.  The  news  reached 
England  just  as  Britain  was  on  the  eve  of  concluding  a  treaty 
with  France.  Louis  XIV.  was  then  nominally  king,  but  he  had 
not  yet  asserted  his  own  authority,  and  Cardinal  Mazarin,  in  con- 
junction with  Ann  of  Austria,  wielded  the  sole  power.  Cromwell 
refused  to  sign  the  treaty  till  he  had  despatched  an  ambassador  on 
the  part  of  the  Piedmontese  to  the  court  of  Turin.  With  all  the 
protector's  hardness  and  sternness,  when  the  occasion  called  for 
them,  pity  was  an  essential  ingredient  in  his  nature.^     The  news 

*  The  following  extract  from  a  letter  of  Cromwell's  illustrates  both  these 
aspects  of  his  character:  —  "To  Cornet  Squire,  15th  March,  1642.  Dear 
Friend,  —  I  have  no  great  mind  to  take  Montague's  word  about  that  farm.     X 


THE   CROWNLESS   MONARCH.  217 

of  tke  sufferings  of  these  Piedmontese  had  melted  him  to  tears  ;  he 
sent  them  two  thousand  pounds  from  his  privy  purse,  appointed  a 
day  of  national  humiliation,  and  a  collection,  in  order  to  relieve 
their  wants,  and  resolved  that,  in  the  absence  of  all  other  power  to 
compel  justice  for  these  sufferers,  England  should  and  would  see 
them  righted.  Forty  thousand  pounds  were  contributed,  with 
generous  readiness,  for  the  relief  of  these  poor  victims  of  oppres- 
sion. 

But  Cromwell  did  more  —  he  insisted  that,  before  he  would 
sign  the  treaty  with  France,  Mazarin  should  interpose  with  the 
Duke  of  Savoy  to  procure  a  cessation  of  these  outrages.  In  vain 
did  the  cardinal  represent  that  the  matter  stood  in  no  relation  to 
the  treaty,  and  that  the  Vaudois  had  committed  a  hundred  times 
worse  cruelties  on  the  catholics  than  they  had  suffered  from  them. 
Cromwell  was  not  the  man  to  give  way.  He  told  Mazarin  that 
he  had  already  allowed  his  own  troops  to  be  engaged  on  the  side 
of  the  persecution.  The  French  ambassador  threatened  to  take 
his  leave.  Cromwell,  entirely  unmoved,  allowed  him  to  go.  He 
at  the  same  time  announced  to  the  court  of  Turin  that  if  remon- 
strances failed  he  was  prepared  to  take  up  arms.  Encouraged  by 
the  example  of  England  —  Denmark,  Sweden,  Holland,  and  some 
of  the  German  States,  said  the  same.  The  result  was,  that  the 
Duke  of  Savoy  sent  the  English  ambassador  to  Cromwell,  with  a 
message  most  respectfully  worded,  declaring  that  "  the  persecu- 
tions had  been  much  misrepresented  and  exaggerated,  and  that 
they  had  been  occasioned  by  his  rebellious  subjects  themselves ; 
nevertheless,  to  show  his  great  respect  for  his  highness,  he  would 
pardon  them,  and  restore  them  to  their  former  privileges."  Such 
was  the  issue  of  a  negotiation,  by  which  the  descendants  of  the 
ancient  Waldenses  were  protected  by  the  strong  hand  of  Crom- 

learn  behind  the  oven  is  the  place  they  hide  them  (the  arms) ;  so  watch  well 
and  take  what  the  man  leaves ;  and  hang  the  fellow  out  of  hand  [out  a  hand], 
and  I  am  your  warrant.  For  he  shot  a  boy  at  Pilton-bee  by  the  Spinney,  the 
widow's  son.  her  only  support  :  so  God  and  man  must  rejoice  at  his  punish- 
ment." 

19 


218  thp:  crownless  monarch. 

well's  freedom-loving  administration !  '  The  interval  of  quiet  lasted 
so  long  as  Cromwell  lived,  and  no  longer. 

An  instance  not  dissimilar  occurred  in  reference  to  the  city  of 
Nismes,  in  the  province  of  Languedoc.  The  protestants  "had  set 
up  a  reformer  as  magistrate,  which  the  catholics  strongly  opposed. 
On  the  day  of  election  the  protestants  took  possession  of  the  town- 
house,  which  they  occupied  with  armed  men ;  and  when  the  mag- 
nates of  the  city  came  to  give  their  votes,  the  protestants  poured 
out  a  volley  of  musket-shot  upon  them.  The  provocation  was  cer- 
tainly very  great,  and  the  catholic  party  immediately  proceeded 
to  great  severities  against  them.  The  inhabitants  of  Nismes,  see- 
ing an  army  marching  against  their  city,  and  fearful  of  the  conse- 
quences which  their  rash  conduct  had  entailed  on  themselves,  sent 
a  messenger  to  Cromwell,  to  desire  his  interposition  on  their  behalf. 
That  very  night,  Cromwell  despatched  a  courier  to  the  English 
ambassador  at  Paris,  who  prevailed  on  the  cardinal  to  pardon  the 
offending  reformers,  and  to  stop  the  troops,  which  were  already  on 
their  march  to  chastise  them,  so  that  when  the  messenger  returned, 
he  found  the  negotiation  complete,  and  the  city  absolved. 

Such  were  some  of  the  leading  features  in  the  ecclesiastical  his- 
tory of  Oliver  Cromwell.  In  no  line  of  regal  descent,  his  king- 
ship stands  distinct,  peculiar,  alone,  —  for  his  successor  was  the 
merest  cipher,  —  denied  by  the  republican,  and  more  strongly 
denied  by  the  royalist,  a  gap  in  sculptured  lineage,  and  a  blot  in 
history ;  yet  acknowledged  by  such  men  as  Louis  XIV.  and  Maz- 
arin,  who  made  the  rest  of  the  world  fall  down  and  worship  them. 
That  Cromwell's  character  —  independent,  decisive  and  self-reliant, 
as  he  was  —  prompted  him  to  actions  which,  had  they  been  per- 
formed by  royalists,  he  would  have  been  the  first  to  condemn ;  that 
the  doctrine  of  the  divine  law  of  necessity,  as  he  held  it,  made  him 
dangerously  a  law  to  himself;  that  he  showed  "  the  terror  of  his 
beak,  the  lightning  of  his  eye,"  not  always  to  punish  the  daring 
Prometheus  who  was  wielding  the  fire  of  heaven,  but  sometimes 
to  fright  men  away  from   the  dead   carrion  of  his  own  inter- 


mE   CROWNLESS   MONARCH.  219 

eats"^  and  power,  we  fear  truth  and  candor  must  admit.  But  ho 
was  a  vessel  moulded  out  of  no  common  clay.  He  had  the  quick, 
intuitive  perceptions  which  seem  akin  to  inspiration.  As  we  search 
the  dunghill  on  which  his  memory  has  been  ignominiously  thrown, 
the  jewels  which  adorned  him  flash  out  upon  our  eyes.  His  enemies 
dwell  upon  his  despotism,  his  friends  applaud  his  love  of  religious 
liberty ;  both  verdicts  may  be  conjoined  in  the  paradox  which  is 
his  true  description.  He  was  a  despot  for  religious  liberty.  He 
held  that  religion  was  above  all  law,  excepting  always  that  false 
religion  which  rendered  law  impossible.  Whilst  he  crushed  the 
uniformity  which  would  have  paralyzed  moral  action,  he  taught 
that  spiritual  liberty  was  the  vital  element  of  a  nation's  glory,  and 
that  greatness  belonged  to  character,  and  was  not  identical  with 
the  punctilios  of  a  denominational  creed.  He  did  not,  it  is  true, 
realize  a  complete  notion  of  the  thing  he  aimed  at,  and  he  some- 
times perplexed  Jmd  confounded  himself.  But  he  showed  the  way 
to  a  possibility  of  which  the  nation  never  lost  sight ;  the  conviction 
of  which  made  men  impatient  of  the  harsh  rule  of  the  second 
Stuart,  and  prompted  the  subsequent  movements  of  the  great  rev- 
olution. It  must  never  be  forgotten  that  much  of  the  obloquy 
heaped  upon  this  great  man  arises  not  only  from  the  malignity  of 
the  royalists,  t  but  from  the  narrow  views  of  the  disappointed 
seekers  of  presbyterian  uniformity.  The  day  of  Cromwell's  deg- 
radation is,  however,  over.  In  vain  do  men  any  longer  trample 
on  his  memory ;  his  name  will  not  die. 

We  cannot  close  this  chapter  without  adverting  to  two  scenes  in 

*  The  testimony  of  so  eminent  a  man  as  Howe  must  not  be  forgotten,  in  this 
connection. 

f  The  reader  of  the  history  of  the  commonwealth  needs  not  to  be  told  that 
many  of  the  tales  which  obtained  credence  relative  to  the  personages  of  that 
period  are  absolutely  naked  inventions.  Owen  was  charged  with  having  gone 
about  Oxford  girt  with  a  sword  ;  he  declares  that  he  never,  to  his  remembrance, 
wore  a  sword  in  his  life.  The  same  divine  is  spoken  of  by  Tillotson  as  having 
been  present  at  Cromwell's  death -scene.  Every  probability  attests  that  this 
was  entirely  without  foundation.  These  may  be  taken  as  specimens  of  th« 
rest. 


220  THE   CROWNLESS   MONARCH. 

the  protector's  private  life,  which  form  a  counterpart  more  than 
corresponding  to  the  descriptions  of  his  royal  antagonist's  domestic 
virtues.  One  is  the  death  of  Cromwell's  earnest,  loving,  true- 
hearted  mother: 

"  On  Friday,  Secretary  Thurloe  writes  incidentally  :  '  My  Lord 
Protector's  mother,  of  ninety-four  years  old,  died  last  night.  A 
little  before  her  death  she  gave  my  lord  her  blessing,  in  these 
words :  The  Lord  cause  his  face  to  shine  upon  you,  and  comfort  you 
in  all  your  adversities,  and  enable  you  to  do  great  things  for  the 
glory  of  your  most  High  God,  and  to  be  a  relief  unto  his  people. 
My  dear  son,  I  leave  my  heart  with  thee.  A  good-night !  —  and 
therewith  sank  into  her  long  sleep.'  Even  so.  Words  of  ours  are 
but  idle.  Thou  brave  one,  mother  of  a  hero,  farewell !  Ninety- 
four  years  old !  The  royalties  of  Whitehall,  says  Ludlow,  very 
credibly,  were  of  small  moment  to  her ;  at  the  sound  of  a  musket, 
she  would  often  be  afraid  her  son  was  shot,  and  could  not  be  satis- 
fied unless  she  saw  him  once  a  day,  at  least.  She,  —  old,  weak, 
wearied  one,  —  she  cannot  help  him  with  his  refractory  pedant 
parliaments,  with  his  anabaptist  plotters,  royalist  assassins,  and 
world-wide  confusions ;  but  she  bids  him  be  strong,  be  comforted 
in  God.  And  so  good-night!  And  in  the  still  eternities  and 
divine  Silences,  —  Well,  are  they  not  divine  ?"^ 

The  companion  scene  is  not  less  affecting ;  it  describes  the  death- 
bed of  Oliver's  favorite  daughter,  the  Lady  Claypole.  "  For  four- 
teen days  he  watched  by  her  bed-side,  he  and  her  noble  mother, 
a/id  the  loving  circle  of  sisters,  including  their  young  Frances,  with 
her  widow's  tears  still  undried.  For  fourteen  days  the  fond 
father,  unable  to  attend  to  any  public  business,  refused  to  quit  her 
bedside.  On  the  6th  day  of  August  she  lay  at  rest,  in  her  last 
sleep,  and  the  weeping  circle  sought  consolation  where  they  had 
oft  before  found  it  in  less  trying  hours  of  bereavement." 

Oliver  bore  the  trial  with  the  fortitude  of  a  Christian  parent, 
and  yet  it  broke  his  heart.     About  a  fortnight  afterwards,  Thur- 

•  Cromwell's  Letters  and  Speeches,  vol.  in.,  p.  406. 


TUE    CROWNLESS    MONARCH.  221 

loe  wrote  to  Henry  Cromwell,  and,  after  describing  the  funeral  of 
his  sister  Elizabeth,  he  adds :  —  "  Your  lordship  is  a  very  sensible 
judge  how  great  an  affliction  this  was  to  both  their  highnesses,  and 
how  sad  a  family  she  left  behind  her ;  which  sadness  was  truly 
very  much  increased  by  the  sickness  of  his  highness,  who  at  the 
same  time  lay  ill  of  the  gout  and  other  distempers,  contracted  by 
the  long  sickness  of  my  Lady  Elizabeth,  which  made  great  impres- 
sion on  him.'- 

But  Cromwell's  life,  shattered  by  this  new  sorrow,  approached 
its  close.  The  sunset  was  impressive,  really  sublime.^^  Did  ever 
hypocrite  —  conscious  of  his  manifold  hypocrisies  —  so  die  ? 
*'  Children,  live  like  Christians ;  I  leave  you  the  covenant "  (of 
grace)  "  to  feed  upon."  —  "Lord,  thou  knowest  that  if  I  desire  to 
live,  it  is  to  show  forth  thy  praise  and  declare  thy  works."  —  "It 
is  a  fearful  thing  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  living  God."  His 
calmness,  therefore,  was  not  without  a  doubt ;  but  the  doubt  was 
transient !  "  All  the  promises  of  God  are  in  Him,  yea,  and  in 
him  Amen,  to  the  glory  of  God  b}^  us  in  Jesus  Christ."  —  "The 
Lord  hath  filled  me  with  as  much  assurance  of  his  pardon  as  my 
soul  can  hold."  —  "  I  am  a  conqueror,  and  more  than  a  conqueror, 
through  Christ  that  strengtheneth  me."  And  then  he  breathes 
forth  the  following  prayer:  —  "  Lord,  though  I  am  a  miserable 
and  wretched  creature,  I  am  in  covenant  with  thee,  through  grace. 
And  I  may,  I  will,  come  unto  thee  for  this  people.  Thou  hast 
made  me,  though  very  unworthy,  a  mean  instrument  to  do  them 
some  good,  and  thee  service ;  and  many  of  them  have  set  too  high 
a  value  upon  me,  though  others  wish  and  would  be  glad  of  my 
death;  Lord,  however  thou  do  dispose  of  me,  continue  and  go  on 
to  do  good  for  them.  Give  them  consistency  of  judgment,  one 
head,  and  mutual  love ;  and  go  on  to  deliver  them,  and  with  the 
work  of  reformation ;  and  make  the  name  of  Christ  glorious  in  the 
world.     Teach  those  who  look  too  much  on  thy  instruments  to 

*  Mr.  Carlyle  has  done  much  service  by  his  disinterments  ;  by  none  more 
than  by  his  publication  of  Harvey's  "  Collection  of  several  passages  concerning 
his  late  Highness,  Oliver  Cromwell,  in  the  time  of  his  sickness." 

19* 


222  THE   CROWNLESS   MONARCH 

depend  more  on  thyself.  Pardon  such  as  desire  to  trample  on  the 
dust  of  a  poor  worm,  for  they  are  thy  people,  too ;  and  pardon  the 
folly  of  this  short  prayer.  Even  for  Jesus  Christ's  sake.  And 
give  us  a  good-night,  if  it  be  thy  pleasure.     Amen !  "  ^ 

But  the  days  of  Cromwell  —  such  is  the  tenure  upon  which 
human  life  is  held — were  numbered !  Whilst  Europe  was  resound- 
ing with  the  fame  of  those  splendid  achievements  which  had  raised 
Great  Britain  to  an  unprecedented  eminence,  —  whilst  powerful 
empires  were  crouching  at  his  feet,  and  his  incomparable  energy 
was  beating  down  the  hydra-like  attempts  of  modern  and  ancient 
factions,  but  before  he  had  time  fully  to  concentrate  and  establish 
the  power  out  of  which  future  liberty  was  to  spring, — he  died. 
He  left  behind  him  a  name  inseparably  bound  up  with  England's 
pride  and  power,  and  a  fame  which  will  outlive  reproach,  and  may 
well  dispense  with  statuary.  Whatever  his  faults,  —  and  his 
very  strength  was  his  weakness,  —  he  taught  a  secondary  nation  to 
become  the  first  in  Europe,  by  developing  its  latent  powers  and 
resources.  What  can  be  more  honorable  to  Cromwell  than  the 
fact  that  he,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  had  approximated  as 
nearly  to  religious  liberty  as  most  senators  have  done  in  the  nine- 
teenth ;  and  that  he  only  stopped  then  where  they  are  stopping 
now  ?  With  clearer  views  than  his  predecessors,  his  contempora- 
ries, or  his  immediate  successors,  he  saw,  to  a  large  extent,  that 
freedom  was  an  essential  element  of  virtue  and  of  power,  and  that 
a  nation  was  great,  not  when  it  prescribed  opinions,  but  when  it 
acted  on  the  divine  rule  of  bearing  with  the  mistaken,  and  diffiis- 
ing  free  air  and  sunshine  around  it. 

Happy  shall  we  be  if  whilst  we  profit  by  the  errors,  we  shall 
exceed  the  lessons,  of  so  great  an  instructor ! 

♦  Carlyle*8  Cromwell,  vol.  nc.,  p.  400. 


CHAPTER    VII. 


THE    RETURNING    TIDE. 


**  The  flagrant  inconsistency  of  all  protestant  intolerance  is  a  poison  in  its 
veins  which  must  destroy  it."  —  Mackintosh. 

Among  the  eminent  men  who  flourished  during  the  period  of 
the  great  civil  wars,  none  was  more  worthily  conspicuous  than 
Richard  Baxter.  His  name,  his  piety,  his  usefulness,  have  been 
bequeathed  by  him  as  a  precious  legacy  to  Christ's  church,  to  show 
how  much  more  religion  is  than  an  empty  name ;  how  near  a 
Christian  on  earth  may  be  to  a  saint  in  Paradise ;  and  how  the 
deepest  concern  in  public  movements  does  not  necessarily  fret 
away  a  heaven-born  piety.  His  portrait  is  almost  as  well  known 
as  his  name.  The  pinched  skull-cap,  from  under  which  the  jet- 
black  locks  flow  down  with  puritanical  severity ;  the  sharply- 
chiselled  features,  indicating  an  equal  familiarity  with  thought 
and  emotion ;  the  somewhat  severe  expression  of  the  dark  linea- 
ments, over  which  a  divine  radiance  is  yet  diffused,  like  some  stern 
fastness  glowing  in  the  brilliance  of  a  summer's  sun,  —  are  in  the 
memory  of  the  least  intelligent.  To  dwell  upon  the  history  of 
such  a  man,  even  to  its  most  detailed  incidents,  and  to  observe  how 
his  errors  and  littlenesses  become  faint,  when  regarded  by  the  side 
of  a  devoutness  which  has  scarcely  a  parallel,  would  be,  to  any 
well-constituted  man,  a  delightful  task  ;  but  it  is  one  we  cannot  in 
this  chapter  undertake  to  perform,  —  nor  is  it  necessary. 

The  ancient  town  of  Kidderminster  is  at  present,  owing  to  its 
being  off"  the  great  lines  of  railway,  no  very  accessible  spot.  It 
stands  in  a  basin  of  the  red  sandstone  formation,  and  its  vicinity  is 


224 


THE   RETURNING   TIDE. 


delightfully  diversified  with  hill  and  valley.  Nothing  can  be  more 
delicious  than  the  green  foliage,  alternating  with  the  ruby-colored 
soil  which  abundantly  produces  it,  —  a  contrast  of  color  always 
harmonious,  and  in  this  neighborhood  peculiarly  beautiful.  Kidder- 
minster is  less  injured  than  most  towns  by  the  progress  of  modern 
improvement.  The  natural  features  of  the  place  are,  indeed, 
beyond  the  possibility  of  change ;  but,  besides  these,  old  structures 
meet  the  eye  continually.     The  eminence  from  which  our  sketch 


KlDDEUMl.N-STKU,    WITH    THE   CIUtRCII    VV    JAXTKR 


jj  taken — Bewdley-road  —  must  exhibit  in  1851  nearly  the 
same  aspect  it  presented  in  the  days  of  the  devout  nonconformist. 
The  steep  declivity  down  which  the  road  passes  into  the  town,  dis- 
playing ancient  houses,  hollowed  out  of  the  living  rock,  as  if  they 
had  been  parts  —  though  very  ungraceful  ones  —  of  some  modern 
Petra ;  the  antique  tower,  conspicuous  in  the  central  distance,  built 
of  the  red  rock,  to  which  the  corrosions  of  weather  impart  a  pecu- 
liar mellowness;  the  ill-constructed  houses,  sometimes  almost 
buried  under  the  cliflfe,  and  then  as  picturesquely  lifting  them- 


TUB   RETURNING   TIDE.  225 

selves  high  in  air,  —  impart  a  physiognomy  to  the  ancient  place 
extremely  uncommon. 

Here,  then,  the  holy  man  lived  and  labored.  On  each  side  of 
this  old  street  the  voice  of  thanksgiving  might  be  heard,  on  a  Sab- 
bath-evening, from  the  various  families  assembled  at  their  evening 
devotions.  The  grave  form  of  the  thin,  sickness-worn  divine,  or 
of  his  congenial  assistant,  may  be  imagined,  proceeding  from  house 
to  house,  as  he  pursued  his  work  of  conversation  or  catechising 
among  the  numerous  parishioners.  The  crowds  gathering,  weekly 
to  the  church  bore  witness  to  the  value  the  hearers  set  Upon  the 
living  truth,  enforced  as  it  was  by  Baxter's  earnest  oratory,  and 
still  more  by  his  exemplary  life.  His  time  —  for  at  this  period  he 
had  neither  wife  nor  family  —  was  altogether  devoted  to  his  flock. 
Though  his  means  were  small,  his  liberality  was  great.  Vice  was 
frowned  down.  The  Sabbath  was  so  observed,  that  the  traces  of 
that  observance  yet  remain,  or  did  until  very  recently,  in  the 
habits  of  the  people.  All  Baxter's  hearers  were  not,  indeed,  con- 
verted, and  enemies  and  maligners  still  remained ;  but  they  were 
mostly  silenced ;  and  Kidderminster  presented,  in  his  days,  the 
nearest  approach,  perhaps,  which  any  town  has  ever  exhibited,  to 
a  Christianized  community.  And  what  rendered  this  the  more 
remarkable  was,  that  this  reformation  took  place  at  a  time  when 
internal  discord  was  eating  into  the  heart  of  the  land. 

No  change  can  be  greater  than  that  which  has  befallen  the 
interior  of  Baxter's  church  itself  It  stands  on  one  side  of  the 
town,  and  on  the  edge  of  a  precipice,  which  renders  it  a  command- 
ing object.  But  all  within  is  transformed.  A  taste,  in  some 
respects  of  the  best  kind,  but  of  the  most  tractarian  pattern,  has 
remodelled  the  whole  edifice ;  and  the  advance  to  Romanism  is 
conspicuous  upon  every  panel  and  adornment.  But  in  the  "  New 
Meeting  "  Baxter's  ancient  pulpit  yet  survives,  having  been  pur- 
chased, among  a  mass  of  old  rubbish,  when,  some  years  ago,  the 
church  was  undergoing  alteration.  What  visitor  can  look  upon  it 
unmoved  ?  It  is  an  ornamented  structure,  as  rich  as  carving  and 
gilt  could  make  it,  of  the  date  of  James  I.,  when  Inigo  Jones  gave 


226 


THE   KETtJIlNING    TIDE. 


the  taste  for  Grrecian  architecture  in  Gothic  churches.     Carved  in 
alto-relievo,  on  its  sounding-board  are  the  appropriate  words : 

SING   UNTO  THE 

LORD   PRAISE 

HIS   NAME    DECLARE 

HIS    WORKS    A 
MONG    THE    PEOPLE 

PSALMS   THE    CV. 

Below,  in  a  similar  style,  is  the 
conspicuous  name  of  its  donor : 

ALICE   DAWX    WIDOW    GAVE   THIS. 

Kidderminster  has  no  other  monu- 
ment of  Richard  Baxter.  It  is 
impossible  that  it  could  possess  a 
better. 

Baxter  had  not  been  long  settled 
in  Kidderminster,  wlien  the  great  civil  war  began.  He  was  at 
this  time  twenty-six  years  of  age.  The  king  kept  as  ^r  as  possi- 
ble from  the  counties  which  formed  the  eastern  association  ;  and 
drew  most  of  his  retainers  from  Shropshire,  Herefordshire,  Worces- 
tershire, and  Wales.  As,  to  be  a  puritan,  or  to  be  suspected 
of  being  one,  exposed  a  man  to  all  kinds  of  abuse  and  exaction 
from  the  royal  partisans,  many  who  would  have  lived  in  quiet, 
had  such  a  course  been  possible,  were  compelled  to  ally  themselves 
with  the  parliamentary  troops,  and  seek  refuge  under  their  protec- 
tion. Among  those  who  were  in  this  predicament  was  Baxter 
himself.  When  the  king's  declarations  were  read  in  the  market- 
place of  Kidderminster,  the  rabble  grew  so  riotous  and  outrageous, 
that  he  was  compelled  to  leave  the  town.  He  retired  for  a  while 
to  Gloucester,  where  he  became  involved  in  sectarian  disputes, 
tending  to  sharpen  his  acrimony  against  ecclesiastical  schismatics. 
He  subsequently  found  a  refuge  in  Coventry,  where  he  resided  for 
a  time  with  a  friend,  preaching  once  a  week  to  the  soldiers  of  the 
garrison,  and  to  various  ministers  and  others,  who  had  taken  refuge 


THE   RETURNING   TIDE.  227 

in  the  town  from  the  flames  of  popular  fury.  Many  of  his  old 
hearers,  also,  had  here  sought  a  quiet  retreat. 

After  the  battle  of  Naseby,  Baxter  went  to  visit  the  army,  and 
to  see  some  of  his  friends.  "  He  staid,"  says  Calamy,  "  a  night 
with  them,  and  got  such  intelligence  as  to  the  state  of  the  army 
as  amazed  him.  He  found  plotting  heads  were  hot  upon  what 
intimated  their  intention  to  subvert  both  church  and  state.  Inde- 
pendency and  anabaptistry  extremely  prevailed  among  them ; 
antinomianism  and  arminianism  were  equally  distributed.  ^  ^ 
Many  common  soldiers,  and  some  of  the  officers,  were  honest,  sober, 
and  orthodox  men;  but  a  few  proud,  self-conceited,  hot-headed 
sectaries  had  got  into  the  highest  places,  and  were  Cromwell's 
chief  favorites  ;  and  by  their  very  heat  and  activity  bore  down  the 
rest,  or  carried  them  along  with  them,  and  were  the  soul  of  the 
army,  though  much  fewer  in  numbers  than  the  rest.  ^  ^  Sep- 
aratists and  sectaries  were  the  persons  most  honored  ;  but  Crom- 
well and  his  council  joyn'd  with  no  party,  being  for  the  liberty  of 
all." 

This,  it  will  be  remembered,  is  the  testimony  of  a  presbyterian, 
relating  the  impressions  made  upon  Baxter,  himself  a  presbyterian, 
by  the  agitation  of  the  times.  The  evil  was,  indeed,  manifest,  and 
was  a  grief  to  every  well-wisher  to  the  church  of  God,  as  well  as 
a  serious  impediment  to  all  united  and  concentrated"  action.  But 
the  remedy  was  one  entirely  beyond  the  power  of  Baxter,  or  of 
those  who  thought  with  him,  to  apply ;  and  the  course  they 
took  only  exasperated  the  malady  they  would  fain  have  cured. 
The  state  had,  certainly,  no  appliances  which  could  heal  so  wide 
a  wound. 

This  visit,  however,  made  a  deep  impression  upon  Baxter's 
mind.  When  Cromwell  had  first  formed  his  band  of  Ironsides, 
"  which  was  to  be  a  gathered  church,"  he  had  invited  Baxter  to 
become  their  chaplain.  He,  perhaps,  afterwards,  as  he  reasoned 
out  his  own  position  more  clearly,  had  ceased  to  desire  it ;  but 
when  now  Baxter  witnessed  the  influence  of  this  band,  and  saw 
the  increase  of  sectananisra  among  them,  he  regretted  that  the 


228  THE   RETURNING    TIDE. 

invitation  had  not  been  accepted,  and  readily  fell  in  with  the 
entreaty  of  Colonel  Whalley  to  undertake  a  similar  charge  in  his 
regiment.  He  went,  therefore,  into  the  army,  hoping  to  stem  the 
torrent  of  sectarianism,  from  which  he  boded  the  most  disastrous 
consequences.  "  His  life  among  them,"  says  Calamy,  "  was  a  daily 
contending  against  seducers."  "  He  was  almost  always  disputing 
with  one  or  other  of  them,  —  sometimes  for  civil  government,  and 
sometimes  for  church  order  and  government ;  sometimes  for  infant 
baptism,  and  often  against  antinomianism,  and  the  contrary  extreme. 
But  their  Tuost  frequent  and  vehement  disputes  were  for  liberty 
of  conscience,  as  they  called  it ;  that  is,  that  the  civil  magistrate 
had  nothing  to  do  in  matters  of  religion,  by  constraint  or  restraint; 
but  every  man  might  not  only  hold  and  believe,  but  preach  and  do, 
in  matters  of  religion,  what  he  pleased."^  Their  spirit  was  no 
doubt  sufficiently  factious  and  disorderly,  especially  if  we  remem- 
ber that  conspicuous  among  them  were  the  levellers,  who  after- 
wards rose  up  against  Cromwell  himself.  But  it  is  evident  that 
to  Baxter  "liberty  of  conscience"  was  rank  heresy.  No  man 
better  loved  the  order  and  power  implied  in  the  phrase  "  church 
and  state  "  than  Baxter.  He  therefore  complained  that  he  was 
kept  in  ignorance  of  the  meetings  and  councils  of  Cromwell  and 
his  officers,  and  "found  reason  to  apprehend  that,  if  there  had  been 
a  competent  number  of  ministers,  each  doing  his  part,  the  whole 
plot  of  the  furious  party  might  have  been  broken,  and  king,  par- 
liament and  religion,  preserved."  Let  us  hear  Baxter's  own  words 
relative  to  the  assembly  of  "  dry  vines,"  as  the  sectaries  in  the 
army  then  called  it,  and  to  the  period  in  general  which  his  autobi- 
ography so  energetically  describes : 

"  A  few  dissenting  ministers  of  the  Westminster  assembly  began 
all  this,  and  carried  it  far  on.  ^  ^  Afterwards  they  increased, 
and  others  joined  themselves  to  them,  who,  partly  by  stiffness,  and 
partly  by  policy,  encreas'd  our  flames,  and  kept  open  our  wounds, 
as  if  there  had  been  none  but  they  considerable  in  the  world.   And 

*  Calamy 's  Life  of  Baxter. 


THE   RETURNING    TIDE.  229 

having  an  army  and  city  agents,  fit  to  second  them,  efiectually 
hindered  all  remedy,  till  they  had  dash'd  all  to  pieces  as  a  broken 
glass.  0,  what  may  not  pride  do,  and  what  miscarriages  will  not 
false  principles  and  faction  hide  !  One  would  have  thought  that 
if  their  opinions  had  been  certainly  true,  and  their  church  order 
good,  yet  the  interest  of  Christ,  and  the  souls  of  men,  and  of 
greater  truths,  should  have  been  so  regarded  by  the  dividers  in 
England,  as  that  the  safety  of  all  these  should  have  been  pre- 
ferred, and  not  all  ruined,  rather  than  their  way  should  want  its 
carnal  aini'  and  liberty ;  and  that  they  should  not  tear  the  gar- 
ment of  Christ  all  to  pieces,  rather  than  it  should  want  their 
lace." 

These  words  describe  a  not  uncommon  error,  especially  among 
some  good  men,  who  regard  the  unity  of  the  church  as  implying 
the  sacrifice  of  its  less  important  truths.  How  Baxter  himself 
acted  when  the  current  ran  in  the  contrary  direction  we  have  seen 
already.  None  was  more  liable  to  the  charge  of  an  undue  perti- 
nacity than  himself.  But  in  this  case  the  plea  which  the  presby- 
terian  party  urged  against  the  sectaries  was  but  that  which  the 
episcopal  had  urged  against  the  puritans.  How  easy  it  is  for  the 
inflicter  of  an  injury  to  cry  out.  Peace  !=^ 

It  would  be  a  gross  mistake  to  imagine  that  Baxter  meant  to 
impute  to  these  sectaries  in  general  a  spirit  of  lawless  disorder,  so 
far  as  the  great  object  for  which  they  were  in  arms  was  concerned. 
"  They  ail  agreed  to  preserve  the  kingdom ;  they  prospered  more 
in  amity  than  uniformity.  Whatever  their  opinions  were,  they 
plundered  none  with  them,  they  betrayed  none  with  them,  nor 
disobeyed  the  state  with  them  ;  and  they  were  more  visibly  pious 

*  It  is  right  that  Baxter's  praises  should  be  set  over  against  his  censures. 
In  another  passage  he  says,  speaking  of  the  independents,  "  Most  of  them 
were  zealous,  and  very  many  learned,  discreet,  and  godly  men,  fit  to  be  serv- 
iceable in  the  church.  *  *  I  saw  also  a  commendable  care  of  serious 
holiness  and  discipline  in  most  of  the  independent  churches."  Life,  part  i., 
p.  140. 

20 


230  THE   RETURNING   TIDE. 

and  peaceable  in  their  opinions  than  those  we  call  more  ortho- 
dox." ^ 

An  accusation  was  got  up  against  Baxter,  that  at  this  period  he 
had  killed  a  papist  with  his  own  hand.  But  the  report  was  utterly 
unfounded. 

AVhilst  with  the  army,  Baxter  was  visited  with  a  dangerous 
sickness.  His  constitution  was  naturally  most  delicate,  his  blood 
being  so  attenuated  that  it  frequently  oozed  out  from  his  fingers' 
ends  ;  but  on  this  occasion  he  was  seized  with  so  violent  a  bleed- 
ing at  the  nose,  as  to  put  his  life  in  great  peril,  and '  entirely  to 
destroy  his  schemes  for  drawing  off  the  sectarian  party  from  their 
proposed  plans.  He  was  pitied  in  this  distress  by  Lady  Rous, 
who  cared  for  him  and  tended  him  with  great  assiduity,  till  he 
was  able  to  return  to  Kidderminster.  This  sickness  is  memorable 
as  having  led  to  the  publication  of  that  devout  and  incomparable 
work,  "  The  Saint's  Rest ;"  one  chapter  of  which  more  than  com- 
pensates for  all  the  venial  errors  into  which  Baxter  was  ever 
betrayed. 

He  now  resumed  his  labors  at  Kidderminster.  At  this  time  he 
sided  with  neither  party  ;  opposing  on  the  one  hand  the  covenant, 
and  on  the  other  the  engagement.  Conscientious  always,  he  was, 
probably,  in  a  state  of  indecision  as  to  his  duty.  One  great  object 
of  his  life  was  now,  however,  secured ;  he  was  free  to  resume  his 
beloved  work  at  Kidderminster.  For  fourteen  years  he  had,  as  he 
tells  us,  "  after  wars  and  sickness,  liberty  in  such  sweet  employ- 
ment." Nothing  can  better  describe  his  pastoral  life  than  the 
account  he  gives  of  it  himself.  His  self-denying  earnestness  ;  the 
pungency  of  address  which  he  carefully  cultivated ;  the  intense 
ardor  with  which  he  spoke,  to  use  his  own  well-known  words, 
"  as  a  dying  man  to  dying  men  ;"  the  faithfulness  of  his  rebukes  ; 
the  loftiness  of  his  seraphic  piety ;  the  unyielding  firnmess  with 
which  he  maintained  all  which  he  believed  to  be  true ;  and  the 
energy  with  which  he  seconded  in  private  all  which  he  delivered 

*  Sprigge'a  "Anglia  Rediviva,"  quoted  in  Orme's  Baxter,  p.  53.  Sprigge 
was  chaplain  to  Fairfax,  himself  a  presbyterian. 


THE   RETURNING   TIDE.  231 

in  public,  might  almost  form  an  appendix  to  "the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles." 

During  his  residence  at  Kidderminster,  he  once  preached  at 
court  before  Cromwell.  His  subject  was  1  Cor.  1 :  10,  "  against 
the  divisions  and  distractions  of  the  church."  He  says,  "My 
plainness  was  displeasing  to  him  and  his  courtiers,  but  they  put  it 
up."  Cromwell  sent  to  converse  with  him,  endeavoring,  in  "a 
long  and  tedious  speech,"  to  reconcile  him  to  the  new  government ; 
but  Baxter,  who  was  a  firm  royalist,  could  not  be  won.  Cromwell 
afterwards  summoned  him  to  a  conversation  on  liberty  of  con- 
science :  a  subject  which  the  protector  understood  much  better 
than  the  divine.  But  this  interview  was  equally  fruitless.  Baxter 
was  remarkable  for  tenacity  of  opinion,  and  the  matter  ended  as  it 
had  begun. 

The  following  passage  exhibits  Baxter's  views  of  Cromwell's 
administration  of  religious  liberty.  It  will  be  read  with  mingled 
pleasure  and  pain : 

"  When  Cromwell  was  made  Lord  Protector,  he  had  the  policy 
not  to  detect  and  exasperate  the  ministers  and  others  who  consented 
not  to  his  government.  Having  seen  what  a  stir  the  engagement 
had  before  made,  he  let  men  live  quietly,  without  putting  any 
oaths  of  fidelity  upon  them,  except  members  of  his  parliaments ; 
these  he  would  not  allow  to  enter  the  house  till  they  had  sworn 
fidelity  to  him.  The  sectarian  party  in  his  army  and  elsewhere 
he  chiefly  trusted  to,  and  pleased  ;  till,  by  the  people's  submission 
and  quietness,  he  thought  himself  well  settled  ;  and  then  he  began 
to  undermine  them,  and  by  degrees  to  work  them  out.  Though 
he  had  so  often  spoken  for  the  anabaptists,  he  now  found  them  so 
heady,  and  so  much  against  any  settled  government,  and  so  set 
upon  the  promotion  of  their  way  and  party,  that  he  not  only  began 
to  blame  their  uneasiness,  but  also  to  design  to  settle  himself  in  the 
people's  favor  by  suppressing  them."^ 

When  Richard  Cromwell  succeeded  his  father,  Baxter  gave  his 

*  Life,  part  i.,  p.  74. 


232  THE   RETURNING   TIDE. 

allegiance  to  the  new  government.  In  his  simplicity,  he  sufficiently 
indicates  the  ground  of  his  adherence.  "  He  began  to  favor,"  says 
Baxter,  "  the  sober  people  of  the  land,  to  honor  parliaments,  and 
to  respect  the  ministers  called  presbyterians."  The  last  assertion 
probably  contains  the  gist  of  the  whole  matter.  The  independent 
party  saw  no  small  fear  for  religious  liberty.  They  dreaded  a 
return  to  uniformity,  and  to  the  conditions  of  the  solemn  league 
and  covenant.  In  the  movements  of  the  period  which  followed, 
Joseph  Caryl,  Dr.  Owen  and  Philip  Nye,  were  conspicuous.  They 
sent  a  deputation  to  Monk  at  Holyrood  House,  in  the  name  of  the 
independent  churches,  to  which  Monk  was  regarded  as  belonging, 
and  they  offered  to  raise  one  hundred  thousand  pounds  for  the  use 
of  the  army,  that  their  religious  liberty  might  be  protected."^  But 
che  presbyterian  party  prevailed.  Monk  veiled  his  intentions  until, 
at  last,  backed  by  the  Earl  of  Manchester,  Lord  Hollis,  the  presby- 
terian ministers  of  London,  and  others,  he  declared  for  the  king. 
Baxter  appears  to  have  taken  little  part  in  the  movement,  beyond 
that  of  interceding  with  the  general  that  debauchery  and  profane- 
ness  might  be  put  down.  The  king  sent  over  a  proclamation 
against  these  evils,  (!)  to  the  great  joy  of  the  future  nonconformists, 
who  lost  no  time  in  reading  it  in  their  churches. 

The  day  much  desired,  but  long  delayed,  of  the  restoration  of 
Charles  II.  to  the  throne,  had  arrived.  Under  what  pretexts  he 
now  ascended  it  needs  not  to  be  detailed.  With  a  base  hypocrisy, 
far  transcending  the  worst  transactions  attributed  to  Cromwell  by 
his  bitterest  enemies,  he  had  caused  certain  presbyterian  ministers 
to  overhear  him  in  his  devotions,  like  Richard  III.  of  old  time, 
praying  for  the  presbyterian  church,  and  for  the  success  of  the 
covenant.  Notwithstanding  unfavorable  rumors  of  his  levity,  the 
reality  of  this  scene  was  believed.  Thus  far,  at  least,  his  scheming 
proved  successful ;  if  that  could  be  called  success  which  involved 
conditions  he  had  neither  the  inclination  nor  the  power  to  fulfil. 
"  We  do  grant,"  he  had  said  from  Breda,  "  a  free  and  general 

*  Orme's  life  of  Owen,  pp.  282,  283. 


THE   RETURNING    TIDE.  233 

pardon,  which  we  are  ready,  upon  demand,  to  pass  under  our  great 
seal  of  England,  to  all  our  subjects  of  what  degree  soever,  who, 
within  forty  days  after  the  publishing  hereof,  shall  lay  hold  on 
this  our  grace  and  favor,  and  shall  by  any  public  act  declare  their 
doing  so,  and  that  they  return  to  the  loyalty  and  obedience  of  good 
subjects,  except  only  such  persons  as  shall  hereafter  be  excepted 
by  parliament :  ^  ^  we  desiring  and  ordaining  that  thence- 
forward all  notes  of  discord,  separation  and  difference  of  parties, 
be  utterly  abolished  among  all  our  subjects,  whom  we  invite  and 
conjure  to  a  perfect  union  among  themselves,  under  our  protection, 
for  the  re-settlement  of  our  just  rights  and  theirs  in  a  free  parlia- 
ment ;  by  which,  on  the  word  of  a  king,  we  will  be  advised.  ^  ^ 
We  do  declare  a  liberty  to  tender  consciences ;  and  that  no  man 
shall  be  disquieted,  or  called  in  question,  for  differences  in  matters 
of  religion  which  do  not  disturb  the  peace  of  the  kingdom."^ 
Under  these  assurances,  the  king  returned  on  the  29th  May, 
1660.  It  was  a  period  of  mad  intoxication.  Could  men  have 
lifted  the  veil  which  concealed  the  secret  history  of  the  period, 
they  would  have  ascertained  what  would  have  abated  their  ardor. 
For,  on  the  king's  journey  towards  London,  Monk  had  placed  in 
his  hand  a  list  of  about  seventy  persons  recommended  as  privy- 
councillors,  at  the  same  time  assuring  his  majesty  that  in  doing 
so  he  only  complied  with  the  necessities  of  his  position,  and  did 
not  suppose  the  persons  so  recommended  would  be  accepted  by  his 
majesty. 

On  that  day,  —  a  day  memorable  in  the  annals  of  national  infat- 
uation and  royal  perjury,  —  Charles  advanced  from  Canterbury  to 
London,  amidst  the  loud  shouts  of  a  rejoicing  nation.  All  the  most 
splendid  concomitants  usual  upon  royal  progresses  attended  him. 
But  there  were  also  peculiar  features  in  this  welcome.  When  he 
reached  Blackheath,  his  eye  rested  upon  the  army,  —  the  people's 
national  guard,  the  same  army  which  had  beaten  down  his  royal 
father,  and  changed  the  kingdom  into  a  commonwealth, — drawn  up 

*  This  phrase  is  memorable,  and  will  account  for  the  subsequent  eagerness 
shown  to  implicate  the  religious  parties  in  the  various  plots  of  the  period. 

20^ 


234  THE   RETURNING    TIDE. 

in  their,  most  imposing  array,  to  hail  him  as  their  undisputed  sov- 
ereign. At  St.  George's-fields  he  was  met  by  the  lord  mayor  and 
aldermen  of  the  city  of  London,  who,  after  inviting  him  to  a  colla- 
tion in  a  tent  provided  for  that  purpose,  took  part  in  the  gorgeous 
procession  which  escorted  his  majesty  over  London-bridge  to 
Whitehall.  The  streets  were  hung  with  tapestry ;  the  train- 
bands of  the  city,  and  the  several  companies  in  their  liveries,  lined 
the  way  as  far  as  Temple-bar ;  and  beyond  that  a  similar  array 
was  formed,  consisting  of  the  train-bands  of  Westminster,  and 
portions  of  the  army.  The  procession  itself  was  prolonged  and 
superb.  It  was  led  by  troops,  some  in  doublets  of  cloth  of  silver, 
some  in  buff  coats,  with  sleeves  of  silver  lace,  and  rich  green 
scarves,  and  some  in  blue.  Trumpeters  with  the  king's  arms, 
sheriffs'  men  in  rich  cloaks  laced  with  silver,  six  hundred  of  the 
different  companies  of  London,  in  black  velvet  coats,  with  gold 
chains,  on  horseback,  attended  by  footmen  in  liveries,  followed. 
Then,  kettle-drums,  trumpeters,  and  rich  red  liveries ;  twelve 
ministers,  succeeded  by  the  king's  life-guards  ;  the  sheriffs ;  the 
aldermen,  in  scarlet  robes ;  the  lord  mayor,  with  the  sword  and 
badges  of  his  office;  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  and  the  general  of 
the  forces ;  whilst,  after  these,  came  the  king  himself,  riding 
between  the  Dukes  of  York  and  Gloucester.  All  men  pressed  for- 
ward to  see  the  son  of  the  royal  martyr,  and  the  hero  of  the  Bos- 
cobel  oak,  and  to  look  upon  that  swarthy  countenance'^  radiant 
with  joy.  He  was  followed  by  a  troop  of  horse,  bearing  white 
colors,  and  a  great  multitude  of  noblemen  and  gentlemen.  Hearts 
were  beating ;  bonfires  blazing ;  everywhere  was  heard  the  refrain^ 
*'  The  king  shall  enjoy  his  own  again." 

Thus,  on  his  birth-day,  was  Charles  II.  conducted  to  the  palace 
of  his  fathers.  Here  the  lord  mayor  took  leave  of  him.  The 
king  then  went  to  the  lords,  where  he  was  addressed,  on  behalf 
of  that  house,  by  the  Earl  of  Manchester,  in  the  following 
terms : 

*  Charles  was  so  far  from  being  handsome,  that  his  mother,  Henrietta  Maria, 
said  at  his  birth,  "  He  is  so  ugly,  that  I  am  ashamed  of  him.** 


THE   RETURNING    TIDE.  235 

"  Dread  Sovereign,"  said  the  once  parliamentary  general,  "  I 
oiFer  no  flattering  titles,  but  speak  the  words  of  truth ;  you  are  the 
desire  of  three  kingdoms,  the  strength  and  stay  of  the  tribes  of  the 
people,  for  the  moderating  of  extremities,  the  reconciling  of  differ- 
ences, the  satisfying  of  all  interests,  and  for  the  restoring  of  the 
collapsed  honor  of  these  nations." 

He  then  proceeded  to  the  banqueting-house,  where  the  commons 
awaited  him,  and  Sir  Harbottle  Grimstone  said,  on  their  behalf, 
"  With  an  humble  confidence,  I  shall  presume  to  acquaint  your 
majesty  that  I  have  further  in  command  to  present  to  you  at  this 
time  a  petition  of  right,  and  humbly,  on  my  bended  knees,  to  beg 
your  assent  thereto.  Sir,  it  hath  already  passed  two  great  houses, 
—  heaven  and  earth,  —  and  I  have  vox  populi  and  vox  Dei  to  war- 
rant this  bold  demand.  It  is  that  your  majesty  would  be  pleased 
to  remove  your  throne  of  state,  and  set  it  up  in  the  hearts  of  your 
people ;  and,  as  you  are  deservedly  the  king  of  hearts,  there  to 
receive  from  your  people  a  crown  of  hearts." 

To  these  addresses  the  king  replied,  "  that  next  to  the  honor  of 
God,  from  whom  he  chiefly  owed  the  restoration  to  his  crown,  he 
would  study  the  welfare  of  his  people,  and  not  only  be  a  true 
defender  of  the  faith,  but  a  just  assertor  of  the  laws  and  liberties 
of  his  subjects."  A  pledge  akin  to  lovers'  promises,  which  are  kept, 
according  to  Ariosto,  in  jars  in  the  moon. 

A  further  scene  ensued.  The  dignitaries  of  the  church,  in  their 
long-disused  habits,  awaited  him  in  Westminster  Abbey,  to  give 
thanks  for  his  restoration.  The  king,  however,  pleaded  fatigue, 
and  made  his  oblations  in  his  own  apartment.  After  which,  he 
who,  on  his  arrival,  had  received  from  certain  presbyterian  minis- 
ters the  present  of  a  large  Bible,  with  clasps  of  gold,  which  he 
declared  should  be  the  guide  of  his  life,  went  to  the  lodgings  of 
Mrs.  Palmer,  afterwards  Lady  Castlemaine,  his  avowed  mistress, 
ix>  spend  his  evening. 

The  first  acts  of  Charles  were  full  of  promise  to  the  presbyterian 
party.  Several  of  their  ministers,  among  whom  were  Calaniy, 
Reynolds,  Spurstow  and  Baxter,  were  appointed  royal  chaplains. 


236  THE   RETURNING    TIDE. 

and  some  of  them  preached  before  the  king.  The  time  had  now 
come,  as  they  imagined,  for  the  realization  of  their  fondest  hopes. 
Baxter's  warm  heart  had  longed  for  a  scheme  of  comprehension. 
He  had  hoped  for  it,  even  in  the  days  of  Cromwell,  and  his  cor- 
respondence with  Howe,  who  was  preacher  at  Oliver's  court,  had 
signified  the  sincerity  and  ardency  of  his  desires  for  such  an  issue. 
Under  Cromwell  the  motto  had  been  "  state  and  church ; "  there 
was  now  hope  that  it  would  be  "  church  and  state  "  once  more.  A 
deputation,  accordingly,  waited  on  the  king,  in  which  Baxter  was 
the  chief  speaker.  Charles  gave  so  gracious  a  reception  to  these 
representatives,  that  old  Mr.  Ash  burst  into  tears  of  joy  ! 

As,  on  the  king's  arrival,  it  had  been  decreed  that  all  the  acts 
of  the  Long  Parliament,  not  having  received  the  royal  assent,  were 
null  and  void,  the  nation,  by  a  huge  transition,  fell  back  upon  those 
laws  which,  existing  before  the  proceedings  of  the  commonwealth, 
brought  the  people  once  more  under  compulsory  episcopacy.  A 
year  had  not  passed  before  these  former  laws  began  to  be  rigor- 
ously enforced.  The  old  clergy  now  took  possession  of  their  for- 
mer livings,  —  the  court  paying  no  regard  to  the  petitions  that 
those  who  had  been  sequestrated  for  malignancy  or  for  scandal 
might  not  be  replaced.  But,  where  the  old  incumbent  was  dead, 
the  king  confirmed  the  living  to  the  present  possessor.  It  was 
evident  that,  at  this  time,  a  modification  of  the  liturgy  might  have 
comprehended  a  large  portion  of  both  parties,  —  perhaps  have 
quieted  for  a  moment  the  exhausted  and  gasping  nation. 

We  have,  in  a  former  part  of  this  volume,  made  mention  of  a 
palace,  situated  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Thames,  and  once  the 
residence  of  John  of  Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lancaster.  It  had  now 
fallen  into  the  possession  of  the  Bishop  of  London,  and  was,  at  the 
early  part  of  the  reign  of  Charles  II.,  the  scene  of  a  remarkable 
conference,  called  for  the  purpose  of  effecting  what,  in  those  days, 
was  termed  a  comprehension  :  in  other  words,  of  so  adjusting  the 
liturgy  of  the  church  establishment  as  to  accommodate  it  to  the 
consciences  of  religious  men  of  different  persuasions.  In  this 
scheme  Baxter  was  specially  prominent.     He,  and  the  presbyte- 


THE    RETURNING   TIDE. 


237 


rian  party  which  he  led,  entertained  no  objection  to  episcopacy  aa 
such,  though  they  would  have  desired  to  modify  its  prelatical  form  ; 
nor  would  they  have  rigorously  objected  to  the  Book  of  Common- 
prayer,  provided  that  certain  alterations  could  have  been  made  in 
it,  to  relieve  their  consciences  from  its  more  offensive  portions.  To 
discuss  the  possibility  of  such  an  adjustment,  the  Savoy  conference 
had  been  summoned  by  the  king. 


THK    SAVOY    PALACK  —  SCEXK    CF   THT-:    CON'P 

It  was  attended  by  the  xVrchbij^hop  of  Yor'r,  -.vif'i  twelve  bishops 
on  the  one  side,  and  eleven  nonconformist  luinistcra,  chosen  either 
by  Reynolds  (Bishop  of  Norwich)  or  by  Calamy,  on  the  other. 
The  scene  was  singular,  but  characteristic  of  the  temper  of  the 
times.  The  Archbishop  of  York,  opening  the  conference,  avowed 
that  he  did  not  know  its  precise  object,  and  referred  to  Sheldon, 
the  Bishop  of  London ;  he,  a  merciless  enemy  of  nonconformity, 
with  ill-disguised  contempt,  said  that  it  was  not  the  episcopal,  but 
the  nonconformist  party,  who  had  desired  the  alterations  in  the 
liturgy;  and  that,  therefore,  nothing  could  be  done  till  they 
exhibited  their  objections  and  amendments.=^    In  vain  was  it  urged 


*  This  prelate,  upon  being  told  that  the  presbyterian  ministers  were  not 
likely  to  accept  the  terms  of  conf  )rmity  offered  to  them,  is  reported  to  have 
eaid,  **I  am  afraid  they  will."    The  presbyterian  party  was  the  only  })ody 


238  THE   RETURNING   TIDE. 

by  the  nonconformists  that  this  would  be  a  tedious  business,  and 
at  variance  with  the  purposes  of  the  king's  commission,  which 
required  them  to  meet  together  and  to  consult.  The  bishop  was 
inexorable,  and  Baxter  reluctantly  agreed  to  adopt  his  proposal. 
Sheldon's  motives  are  obvious.  He  wished  to  throw  the  odium  of 
attacking  the  Common-prayer  upon  the  nonconformist  party. 
If,  in  stating  their  objections,  they  should  agree  among  themselves, 
—  which  was  doubtful,  —  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  represent 
them  as  captious  and  destructive.  The  temper  of  the  times  was 
with  prelacy,  and  against  presbyterianism.  The  nonconformists, 
however,  addressed  themselves  to  the  task  of  stating  their  objec- 
tions, whilst  to  Baxter  was  given  that  part  which  referred  to  the 
substitution  of  new  forms  for  the  old.  In  the  course  of  a  fortnight, 
he  prepared  a  revised  liturgy  —  a  formula,  expressive,  in  all  its 
parts,  of  a  spiritual  religion,  but  immeasurably  inferior,  as  a  piece 
of  composition,  to  the  compendium  it  was  designed  to  supplant. 
Indeed,  none  but  an  untaught  and  untrained  man,  like  Baxter, 
would  have  presumed  to  offer  the  labor  of  a  few  short  days,  as  a 
rival  to  a  liturgy  which,  whatever  its  faults,  was  much  of  it  the 
production  of  men  of  various  ages,  eminent  for  profundity,  piety, 
and  religious  taste. 

A  tedious  logomachy  followed.  The  conclusion  vas,  indeed, 
from  the  first,  foreseen ;  but,  for  the  sake  of  appearances,  a  little 
show  of  debate  seemed  necessary.  We  need  not  follow  the  his- 
tory into  its  particulars.  Like  all  similar  convocations,  it  was  a 
heartless  juggle,  a  farce  scarcely  possible  to  be  thought  serious. 

The  whole  afiair  was,  on  the  part  of  the  presbyterians,  a  signal 
failure.  The  episcopalians  would  not  abate  the  smallest  ceremony 
of  the  church ;  the  puritans  retired  disappointed  and  disgusted. 

The  open  and  then  unoccupied  area  of  Charing  Cross  was  the 
scene  about  this  time,  of  a  cruel  and  inhuman  punishment.     This 

wtose  rising  power  was  then  dreaded.  The  policy  of  the  day  was  to  keep  them 
down,  not  merely  because  of  their  religious  views,  but  in  order  to  diminish 
their  influence  in  elections. 


2HE   RETURNING   TIDE.  239 

was  the  carrying  out  of  "  An  Act  for  the  attainder  of  several  per- 
sons guilty  of  the  horrid  murder  of  his  late  sacred  majesty  King 
Charles  I."  Harrison,  Carew,  Scroope,  Jones,  Clement,  Scot, 
Hugh  Peters,  Cooke,  Axtel  and  Hacker,  were  the  names  of  the 
ten  who,  out  of  twenty-nine  convicted  for  having  been  concerned 
in  the  late  king's  death,  underwent  the  severest  penalty.  At  the 
same  time,  the  writings  of  Milton  and  John  Goo'dwin,  defending 
the  death  of  the  king,  were  suppressed  by  proclamation.  The  most 
inhuman  and  cowardly  outrages  were  committed  on  the  bodies  of 
those  who  had  been  concerned  in  the  late  revolution.  The  mould- 
ering remains  of  Cromwell,  Ireton  and  Bradshaw,  were  dragged 
to  Tyburn,  and  there  hanged  and  decapitated,  whilst  the  heads 
were  exposed  on  the  top  of  Westminster  Hall.  Nor  did  even  the 
bodies  of  Cromwell's  mother  and  daughter  escape  indignity.  By 
the  authority  of  the  king's  warrants,  the  corpses  of  all  who  had 
been  buried  in  Westminster  Abbey  since  1641,  including  those 
of  Pym,  Blake,  Twisse,  Marshall,  and  others  of  scarcely  less  fame, 
were  exhumed,  and  cast  into  a  pit  in  St.  Margaret's  church-yard. 
The  revenge  was  paltry  and  impotent.  At  the  same  time,  the 
Solemn  League  and  Covenant  was  declared  illegal  by  parliament ; 
and  the  well-known  law,  entitled  the  "  Corporation  Act,"  which 
prohibited  all  persons  from  bearing  offices  of  magistracy  without 
taking  the  oaths  of  allegiance  and  supremacy,  was  passed.  The 
ancient  flame  was  again  kindled. 

The  convocation  was  now,  by  command  of  the  king,  employed 
on  the  revision  of  the  Book  of  Common-prayer,  in  conformity,  it 
was  pretended,  with  the  wishes  of  the  Savoy  conference.  Between 
the  court,  stimulated  by  Clarendon,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  pres- 
byterians  on  the  other,  they  found  this  a  task  of  no  common  diffi- 
culty ;  but  they  resolved  to  ignore  the  objections  of  the  latter,  and 
to  listen  only  to  the  former.  "  They  made,"  says  Tenison,  after- 
wards Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  "  about  six  hundred  small  alter- 
ations or  additions  ;  but,  if  there  was  reason  for  these  changes,  there 
was  equal,  if  not  greater,  reason  for  some  further  improvements." 
They  added  forms  of  prayer  for  the  30th  of  January  and  the  29th 


2t0  THE    RETUKNI^G    TirE. 

of  May  ;  also,  prayers  to  be  used  at  sen,  aud  u  ae^^  oiFice  for  the 
administration  of  adult  baptism.  Nov/  holidays  vvcre  appointed, 
and  more  lessons  from  the  iipocrypha,  such  as  the  history  of  Bel 
and  the  Dragon,  were  inserted.  The  prayer  for  "  our  most 
religious  and  gracious  king  "  was  also  added.  It  was  the  opinion 
of  Burnet  and  Baxter  that  these  alterations  only  rendered  the 
Prayer-book  more  open  to  objection/^  But  it  was  thus  sent  up 
to  the.  houses  of  legislature. 

Symptoms  of  the  rising  storm  were  already  apparent.  Non-son- 
formists  were  indicted  for  not  reading  the  conmion-prayer,  and 
hearers  were  complained  of  for  neglecting  their  parish  churches. 
Worshippers  in  conventicles  were  exposed  to  all  kinds  of  annoy- 
ance ;  insulted  on  their  way,  their  windows  broken  with  stones, 
and  their  religious  rites  often  disturbed  by  the  blowing  of  horns, 
and  other  similar  outrages.  The  spread  of  immorality  and  pro- 
faneness  was  most  extensive ;  and  the  court  was  given  up  to 
profligacy  and  licentiousness.  Dunkirk,  which  had  been  gained 
by  Cromwell  with  so  much  eclat,  was  sold  to  the  French  king  for 
five  hundred  thousand  pounds  ;  Lambert  and  Sir  Harry  Vane,  jr., 
were  brought  to  trial,  one  for  taking  arms  against  the  king,  the 
other  for  compassing  his  death ;  the  former  was  imprisoned  for 
life,  the  latter  executed  on  Tower-hill,  not  being  allowed  to  speak 
to  the  people  from  the  scaffold. 

At  length,  after  sundry  debates,  and  by  a  majority  of  six  votes, 
the  commons  passed  the  infamous  bill  for  "  the  uniformity  of  pub- 
lic" prayers  and  administration  of  sacraments,  and  other  rites  and 
ceremonies,  &c.  &c.,  in  the  Church  of  England."  The  act  was 
ordered,  either  by  a  strange  fatality,  or  in  daring  defiance,  to  take 
effect  from  the  Feast  of  St.  Bartholomew,  Aug.  24,  1662. 

One  of  the  provisions  of  this  act  was,  that  before  St.  Bartholo- 
mew's day  every  parson,  vicar,  or  other  minister  whatsoever,  should, 
on  pain  of  deprival,  declare  openly  and  publicly  his  approval  of 
the  Book  of  Common-prayer,  according  to  the  following  formula  • 

"  I,  A  B,  do  hereby  declare  my  unfeigned  assent  and  consent 

*  Neal,  vol.  iv.,  c.  6. 


THE   RETURNING   TIDE.  241 

to  all  and  everything  contained  and  prescribed  in  and  by  the  book 
entitled  the  Book  of  Common-prayer,"  &c. 

At  the  same  time,  the  act  provided  that  all  persons  holding  pre- 
ferment or  office  in  the  church,  and  every  schoolmaster  keeping 
any  public  or  private  school,  and  every  person  instructing  youth 
in  any  private  family,  "  should  declare  it  unlawful  to  take  arms 
against  the  king ;  should  promise  to  conform  to  tKe  liturgy  ;  and 
should  disclaim,  as  unlawful,  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant." 
Those  who  were  not  clergymen,  but  only  teachers,  were,  in  case  of 
non-compliance  with  the  act,  visited  with  heavy  penalties. 

One  of  the  first  persons  on  whom  the  weight  of  this  enactment 
fell  was  Richard  Baxter.  He  had  refused  to  accept  a  bishopric  ; 
and  had  made  an  endeavor  to  return  to  the  curacy,  the  .duties  of 
which  he  offered  to  perform  without  recompense,  and  he  carried 
wdth  him  the  express  desires  of  the  king  and  Lord  Clarendon  in 
his  reinstatement.  Had  their  desires,  however,  been  sincere,  the 
issue  probably  would  have  been  widely  different.  As  it  was,  the 
Bishop  of  Worcester,  Dr.  Morley,  refused  to  appoint  him.  Baxter 
now  joined  Dr.  Bates,  and  preached  for  him  once  a  week  at  St. 
Dunstan's ;  and,  whilst  that  church  was  under  repair,  at  St. 
Bride's,  Milk-street,  and  Blackfriars.  His  preaching  began  to  be 
regarded  with  much  suspicion.  He  was  watched,  waylaid,  and 
positively  prohibited  from  preaching  at  Kidderminster  any  more. 

Such  was  Baxter's  position  at  the  time  of  the  passing  of  the  Act 
of  Uniformity.  That  act  received  the  royal  assent  on  the  19th 
May ; '  it  was  to  take  effect  from  the  17th  August,  which  was  the 
Sunday  before  St.  Bartholomew's  day  ;  but  the  revised  Prayer- 
book  was  not  printed  till  the  middle  of  August,  leaving  a  space  of 
only  a  few  hours  for  conveying  both  the  announcement  and  the  test 
through  the  country.  Even  in  our  own  day,  such  wanton  haste  in 
the  smallest  legal  matter  would  be  regarded  as  a  serious  indignity  ; 
what,  then,  must  so  great  a  measure  have  been  at  that  period, 
when  few  papers  were  published  at  all,  none  of  them  more  fre- 
quently than  twice  a  week,  and  when  the  roads  were  always  bad, 
and  sometimes  impassable  ?  Bishop  Burnet  says,  "  The  vast  nuin- 
21 


242  THE    llETURNING    TIDE. 

ber  of  copies,  being  many  thousands,  that  were  to  be  wrought  off 
for  all  the  parish  churches  of  England,  made  the  impression  go  so 
slowly,  that  there  were  few  books  set  out  to  sale  when  the  day 
came.  ^  "^  The  matter  was  urged  on  with  so  much  precipi- 
tancy, that  it  seems  implied  that  the  clergy  should  subscribe 
implicitly  to  a  book  they  had  never  seen  ;  and  this  was  done  by 
too  many,  as  the  bishops  themselves  confessed."  We  have  said 
that  Baxter  was  the  first  on  whom  the  weight  of  this  act  fell. 
The  explanation  he  gives  himself.  "  The  last  sermon  that  I 
preached  in  public  was  on  May  25th ;  the  reasons  why  I  gave 
over  sooner  than  most  others  were,  because  lawyers  did  interpret  a 
doubtful  clause  in  the  act  as  ending  the  liberty  of  lectures  at  that 
time ;  because  I  would  let  authority  soon  know  that  I  intended  to 
obey  in  all  that  was  lawful ;  because  I  would  let  all  ministers  in 
England  understand  in  time  whether  I  would  conform  or  not :  for 
had  I  staid  to  the  last  day,  some  would  have  conformed  the  sooner, 
from  a  supposition  that  I  intended  it."  From  this  time,  therefore, 
Baxter  ceased  to  be  a  minister  in  the  Church  of  England. 

We  may  well  imagine  with  what  beating,  and  sometimes  burst- 
ing hearts,  many  of  those  who  were  then  holding  livings  in  the 
Church  of  England  anticipated  the  twenty- fourth  of  August  in  that 
year.  How  many  a  father  would  feel  his  eyes  fill  with  tears,  as 
he  looked  to  the  prospect  of  penury  for  his  helpless  offspring ! 
How  many  a  pastor  would  think,  with  an  anguish  which  no  words 
can  describe,  of  the  separation  which  was  soon  to  sever  him  ft-om 
his  flock,  the  object  of  so  many  solicitudes  and  prayers !  Before 
the  eyes  of  those  most  sensitive  to  feel  such  a  reverse  would  rise 
up  the  visions  of  hated  idleness,  of  galling  persecution,  of  dreary 
and  aching  want !  The  secession  of  the  Free  Church  within  our 
own  day  is  justly  regarded  as  a  noble  instance  in  modern  times  of 
men  who  preferred  truth  to  interest.  But  St.  Bartholomew's  was 
a  still  severer  test ;  for  the  power  enlisted  against  the  puritans  of 
that  day  threatened  to  exterminate  them  altogether.  Who  could 
tell  what  might  be  the  next  step  which  should  follow  one  so 
severe  ?     But  there  was   no  alternative.     They  were  good  men, 


TUE   KETUilAl^'G    11 UE.  243 

and  behind  them  stood  conscience,  an  impassable  wall  of  ada- 
mant. The  test  before  them  —  at  least,  before  those  of  them  who 
had  time  to  inspect  it  —  admitted  of  no  subtlety  or  evasion  which 
it  was  consistent  with  their  high  character  to  adopt.  They  were 
not  required  to  approve  a  part  of  the  system,  nor  even  the  system 
as  a  whole,  but  to  declare  their  "  unfeigned  assent  and  consent  to 
all  and  everything;  "  though  even  passages  of  that  same  Prayer- 
book  asserted  that  some  parts  of  the  church's  own  discipline  were 
not  all  that  could  be  desired  !  ^  Failing  in  their  adhesion,  they 
would  lose  station,  honor,  usefulness,  emolument,  subsistence  —  for 
the  time  fixed  upon  for  compliance  was  just  before  the  yearly 
tithes  would  be  due,  and  the  non-compliant  would  thus  sacrifice  a 
year's  income ;  —  "  their  houses  would  be  turned  to  aliens,  their 
inheritance  to  strangers."  t  But  the  act  set  forth  so  many  con- 
ditions, and  prescribed  them  so  absolutely,  that  no  alternative 
remained. 

Were  there  none  who  at  such  a  conjuncture  thought  even  more 
deeply  ?  Were  there  none  whose  soliloquies  were  not  unlike  the 
following :  There  is  something  judicial  in  our  position  ;  when  wo 
proclaimed  uniformity,  we  lifted  on  high  the  stone  which  is  to  fall 
on  our  own  heads  !  The  instrument  of  torture,  which,  like  a  new 
Perillus,  we  prepared,  is  turned,  by  a  not  unjust  retribution,  on 
ourselves  !  So  would  we  have  crushed  all  sectarianism  except  our 
own  !  When  we  gave  ecclesiastical  power  to  the  state,  did  we  not 
know  that  forms  of  religion  in  its  hands  would  vary  as  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  state  itself?  We  came  in  upon  the  ruin  of  another 
system  ;  that  other  system  now  returns  upon  us  !  t 

With  all  their  errors,  however,  we  love,  we  admire,  we  rev- 
erence, the  holy  men  of  those  days  !     But,  whilst  we  pity  their 

*  See  the  Commination  service. 

•j-  Such  was  the  text  from  which  Bridge  preached  at  Yarmouth  to  a  party  of 
religious  emigrants  at  an  earlier  period. 

i  It  must  not,  however,  be  forgotten  that,  in  the  ejectment  of  the  prelatical 
clergy,  a  fifth  part  of  the  sequestrated  revenue  was  assigned  for  their  support. 
In  the  present  case  there  was  no  such  provision . 


244  THE   RETURNING    TIDE. 

sufferings,  let  us  not  forget  that  there  were  others  more  to  be  pitied 
than  thej.  What  stings  and  agonies  must  have  passed,  however 
transiently,  through  the  mind  of  Charles,^  who  knew  that,  with  all 
this  pretended  zeal  for  protestant  uniformity,  he,  even  now,  be- 
lieved all  protestantism  to  be  a  lie  !  What  unenviable  moments 
were  those  in  which  Clarendon  called  to  mind  how  he  had  once 
fought  the  battles  of  religious  liberty,  by  the  side  of  the  very  men 
whom,  for  the  paltry  bribe  of  seeing  his  daughter  acknowledged 
as  a  duchess,  perhaps  as  a  queen,  he  was  now  laboring  to  destroy  ! 
Who  would  envy  Lauderdale,  who  had  once  sat  as  a  commissioner 
in  the  Assembly  of  Divines,  enacting  the  very  provisions  for  their 
part  in  which  these  men  and  their  successors  were  now  about  to 
suffer  !  And  there  were  more  pitiable  objects  than  even  these. 
Men  who  were  renouncing  the  high  franchises  of  eternity  for  a 
miserable  pittance;  forcing  down  the  feather-weight  of  worldly 
advantage,  to  make  it  heavier  than  the  deeply-loaded  scale  of  con- 
science and  of  God  ;  intentionally  shutting  out  the  light  of  their 
clearest  understanding  ;  taking  refuge  in  quips  and  evasions,  from 
which  their  inmost  souls  recoiled  ;  and  pronouncing  with  faltering 
voice  the  words  which  sunk  them  irrecoverably  in  their  own  self- 
esteem,  no  less  than  it  did  so  in  the  esteem  of  their  observant 
flocks.  Among  the  many  who  subscribed  in  utter  levity,  and  the 
many  more  who  had  made  over  their  consciences  already  to  the 
ruling  power,  there  were  doubtless  such  men  as  these.  The  honor 
and  dignity  of  Christianity  were,  however,  amply  redeemed  by  the 
fact  that  their  number  was  not  greater.  On  the  24th  of  August, 
1662,  the  Church  of  England  was  poorer  by  two  thousand  consci- 
entious ministers ! 

No  day  in  the  annals  of  the  church  in  modern  times  ever  wit- 
n'>ssed  such  an  amount  of  pathetic  and  earnest  Christian  preaching 
as  the  Lord's  day  before  that  Feast  of  St.  Bartholomew  !  The 
deepest   solemnity  pervaded   these   last   utterances.     The  whole 

*  Perhaps  we  do  Charles  II.,  in  such  supposition,  more  than  justice.  JVIany 
parts  of  his  history  would  seem  to  indicate  him  as  a  specimen  of  that  morbid 
moral  anatomy  in  which  conscience  is  altogether  wanting. 


THE    RETURNING    TIDE.  245 

fervor  of  puritan  piety  blazed  up  in  these  last  farewells.  The 
preacher  stood  above  suspicion.  The  hearer  gave  emphasis  to 
every  word  of  the  voice  he  was  to  hear  no  more.  Whole  audi- 
ences were  bathed  in  tears.  The  fire  of  religion  fed  its  flames 
from  the  very  elements  which  were  employed  to  quench  it ! 

Bat  the  most  extensive  suffering  succeeded.  Several  became 
houseless,  homeless,  and  almost  destitute  of  food.  Those  who  had 
congregations  were  in  continual  need  of  their  contributions,  to  aid 
them  in  paying  fines,  or  in  maintaining  them  whilst  in  prison. 
Some  died  of  dejection ;  some  took  shipping  for  Holland  or  New 
England ;  many  found  their  ejection  followed  by  years  of  hard- 
ships, imprisonments  and  fines ;  some  endured  persecutions  from 
the  succeeding  incumbents,  under  the  name  of  suits  for  dilapida- 
tions ;  some  took  to  authorship,  or  sought  a  precarious  subsistence 
by  teaching  in  secret  and  in  danger ;  some  lost  the  favor  of  their 
own  families  by  their  firmness,  and  lived  a  life  of  bitter  reproach 
from  their  connections  ;  a  few  practised  physic  ;  whilst  many  who 
had  seemed  at  the  Restoration  on  the  eve  of  a  high  church  prefer- 
ment began  a  coarse  of  trial  and  contumely  which  ended  only  in 
the  grave.  Happy  were  they  who,  like  Woodward  and  Ash,  died 
before  this  harsh  act  took  efiect ! 

Nor  was  the  effect  of  such  enactments  less  disastrous  upon  the 
Church  of  England  herself  "  The  author  of  '  The  Five  Groans 
of  the  Church '  complains,"  says  Neal,  "  with  great  warmth,  of 
above  three  thousand  ministers  admitted  into  the  church  who  were 
unfit  to  teach  because  of  their  youth  ;  of  fifteen  hundred  debauched 
men  ordained ;  of  the  ordination  of  many  illiterate  men ;  of  one 
thousand  three  hundred  and  forty-two  factious  ministers,  a  little 
before  ordained ;  and  that  of  twelve  thousand  church  livings,  or 
thereabouts,  three  thousand  or  more  being  impropriate,  and  four 
thousand  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  sinecures  ;  so  that  there  was 
a  poor  remainder  left  for  a  painful  and  honest  ministry.'  The 
consequences  are  admirably  depicted  by  Macaulay  : 

"  Daring  the  domination  of  the  puritans,  many  of  the  ejected 
ministers  of  the  Church  of  England  could  obtain  bread  and  shelter 
21^ 


246  THE   RETURNING    TIDE. 

only  by  attaching  themselves  to  the  households  of  royalist  gentle- 
men ;  and  the  habits  which  had  been  formed  in  those  times  con- 
tinued long  after  the  reestablishment  of  monarchy  and  episcopacy. 
In  the  mansions  of  men  of  liberal  sentiments  and  cultivated  under- 
standings, the  chaplain  was  doubtless  treated  with  urbanity  and 
kindness.  His  conversation,  his  literary  assistance,  his  spiritual 
advice,  were  considered  as  an  ample  return  for  his  food,  his  lodg- 
ing, and  his  stipend.  But  this  was  not  the  general  feeling  of  the 
country  gentlemen.  "^  ^  A  young  Levite  —  such  was  the  phrase 
then  in  use  —  might  be  had  for  his  board,  a  small  garret,  and  ten 
pounds  a-year ;  and  might  not  only  perform  his  own  professional 
functions,  might  not  only  be  the  most  patient  of  butts  and  of  listen- 
ers, might  not  only  be  always  ready  in  fine  weather  for  bowls  and 
in  rainy  weather  for  shovel  board,  but  might  also  save  the  expense 
of  a  gardener  or  a  groom.  ^  ^  With  his  cure  he  was  expected 
to  take  a  wife.  The  wife  had  ordinarily  been  in  the  patron's  ser- 
vice ;  and  it  was  well  if  she  was  not  suspected  of  standing  too  high 
in  the  patron's  favor.  ^  ^  Not  one  living  in  fifty  enabled  the 
incumbent  to  bring  up  a  family  comfortably.  As  children  multi- 
plied and  grew,  the  household  of  the  priest  became  more  and  more 
beggarly.  Holes  appeared  more  and  more  plainly  in  the  thatch 
of  his  parsonage  and  on  his  single  cassock.  ^  ^  His  boys  fol- 
lowed the  plough,  and  his -girls  went  out  to  service.  Study  he 
found  impossible ;  for  the  advowson  of  his  living  would  hardly 
have  sold  for  a  sum  sufficient  to  purchase  a  good  theological 
library ;  and  he  might  be  considered  as  unusually  lucky,  if  he 
had  ten  or  twelve  dog-eared  volumes  among  the  pots  and  pans  on 
his  shelves.  Even  a  keen  and  strong  intellect  might  be  expected 
to  rust  in  so  unfavorable  a  situation."  ^ 

Bishop  Burnet  says  that  these  men  were  mean  and  despicable 
in  all  respects  :  the  worst  preachers  he  ever  heard  ;  ignorant  to  a 
reproach,  and  many  of  them  openly  vicious  ;  that  they  were  a  dis- 
grace to  their  order,  and  to  the  sacred  functions,  and  were,  indeed, 
the  dregs  and  refuse  of  the  northern  parts.     The  few  who  were 

*  Macaulay's  England,  vol.  i.,  pp.  327—829. 


THE   RETURNIiS'G    TIDE.  '     247 

above  contempt  or  scandal  were  men  of  such  violent  tempers  that 
they  were  as  much  hated  as  the  others  were  despised. 

Those  who  desire  to  peruse  the  reasons  for  the  nonconformity  of 
these  two  thousand  will  find  them  amply  detailed  in  Calamy's 
Abridgment  of  Baxter  (c.  x.).  The  objections  were  mainly  specific ; 
they  seldom  rose  to  the  dignity  of  a  fundamental  truth.  But  the 
case  was  one  which  rendered  a  single  objection,  how  small  soever 
its  weight,  "though  in  the  estimation  of  a  hair,"  decisive.  The 
assent  and  consent  to  all  and  everything  is  so  narrow  a  sieve,  that 
not  the  smallest  gnat  will  pass  it.=^  Yet  the  objections  sometimes 
hovered  on  the  edge  of  a  great  principle.  "  Many  of  them,"  says 
Calamy,  "apprehended  that  the  method  of  the  national  establish- 
ment broke  in  upon  oeconomical  government.  The  master  of  a 
family  is  an  emblem  of  a  prince  in  tlie  state.  Some  branches  of 
his  power  and  authority  are  evidently  superior.  The  parental 
authority  is  the  highest  that  nature  gives.  We  may  suppose  it  to 
reach  a  great  way,  when  we  consider  that  it  is  designed  to  supply 
the  place  of  reason  ;  whereas,  in  the  exercise  of  a  prince's  author- 
ity, he  is  supposed  to  have  subjects  that  use  their  reason,  and  must 
be  dealt  with  accordingly.  =^  =^  If  neither  prince  nor  bishop 
may  choose  for  my  children  a  tutor,  a  trade,  a  physician,  or  diet, 
or  clothing,  or  impose  husbands  and  wives  without  my  consent, 
how  should  either  of  them  come  by  a  right  to  impose  a  minister 
upon  them  without  my  will  and  choice  ?  Especially  when  his 
management  of  holy  things  is  a  matter  of  such  vast  importance, 
and  wherein  their  salvation  and  my  interest  are  so  nearly  con- 
cerned ? " 

The  course  taken  by  Baxter,  relative  tx)  the  Act  of  Uniformity, 
is  an  epitome  of  his  whole  character.  Where  it  affected  himself, 
and  touched  his  own  disinterested  conscientiousness,  he  was  ready 
to  show  himself  the  first  sufferer  ;  where  the  case  of  others  could 
be  met  by  palliatives,  instead  of  decided  and  clear-headed  courses, 

*  Yet  the  unworthy  continuator  of  Mackintosh's  History  of  England  can  see 
in  this  course,  taken  by  the  nonconformists,  nothing  but  •*  frivolous  objects  " 
and  "  perfidious  artifices  !  " 


248  THE   RETURNING    TIDE. 

he  was  prone  to  recommend  the  former.  But  Baxter  was  a  disci- 
ple of  the  schoolmen,  and  was  so  addicted  to  casuistical  subtleties, 
that  he  might  have  attempted  to  solve  the  problem,  "How 
many  angels  can  stand  on  the  point  of  a  needle  without  jostling  ?  " 
His  heart,  not  his  judgment,  was  tlie  best  director  of  his  conduct. 
At  this  time  he  gave  serious  ofiFence  to  some  of  his  most  attached 
hearers  at  Kidderminster,  by  advising  them  still  to  remain  in  the 
establishment,  though  they  were  altogether  disgusted  with  its 
spirit,  and  were  presided  over  by  a  man  thoroughly  incompetent 
for  his  task.  When,  at  length,  their  unworthy  clergyman  was 
dead,  many  of  his  old  parishioners  thought  that  Baxter  would  now 
conform,  in  order  to  receive  the  next  presentation.  But  they  were 
in  error  ;  he  was  no  self-pleaser. 

The  design  of  the  king  —  if,  indeed,  so  heartless  a  voluptuary 
could  be  said  to  have  a  design, —  was  evidently  to  eject  the  presby- 
terians,  and  to  let  in  the  catholics.=^  The  former  part  of  the  scheme 
had  been  successful.  Charles  now  endeavored  to  accomplish  the 
latter  ;  and  he  published,  on  the  26th  of  December  following  the 
Act  of  Uniformity,  a  declaration  expressive  of  his  purpose  to  grant 
some  indulgence,  —  not  excluding  the  papists,  "  many  of  whom," 
he  said,  "had  deserved  well  of  him."  But  here  he  met  with  an 
unexpected  opposition.  The  parliament  set  themselves  in  array 
against  such  a  dispensation  of  penal  laws,  on  the  sole  authority  of 
the  crown ;  and  the  king,  fearing  for  his  next  subsidy,  was  com- 
pelled to  retreat.  The  sectarian  party  of  the  nonconformists  had 
rejoiced  in  the  prospect  of  the  alleviation  ;  but  the  presbyterians, 
firm  to  their  principle  of  an  ecclesiastical  establishment,  resolved 
rather  to  petition  against  their  own  toleration  than  to  abandon 
their  idol  of  uniformity.     In  this  crisis,  Philip  Nye  came  to  Bax- 

*  "I  will  not  yield  to  any,"  said  this  perjured  and  despicable  man,  "  no, 
not  to  the  bishops  themselves,  in  my  zeal  for  the  protestant  religion,  and  my 
liking  for  the  Act  of  Uniformity."     Speech  to  parliament,  Feb.  28,  1GG2. 

With  equal  infamy,  he  declared,  towards  the  close  of  his  reign,  in  the  course 
of  a  proclamation,  that  "  he  had  always  adhered  to  the  true  religion,  estab- 
lished in  these  realms,  against  all  temptations  whatsoever." 


THE    KETURNI^'G    TIDE.  249 

ter  to  solicit  his  cooperation  for  greater  liberty.  Baxter,  however, 
declined,  and  the  nonconformist  ministers  in  general  followed  his 
example.  They  preferred  to  be  left  to  perish,  rather  than  that  the 
help  given  them  should  be  the  means  of  saving  some  papist  from  a 
similar  predicament.  It  nmst,  however,  be  remembered  that,  in 
thus  acting,  political  causes  had  no  small  influence.  The  presby- 
terians  suspected  already  the  protestantism  of  the  house  of  Stuart. 
They  identified  Catholicism  with  despotism,  and  held  the  penal 
argument  to  be  the  most  cogent,  if  not  the  most  convincing. 
Much,  therefore,  of  what  followed  must  be  regarded,  so  far  as  this 
party  was  concerned,  in  the  light  of  a  voluntary  martyrdom. 

The  revived  doctrine  of  church  and  state,  having  silenced  the 
ministers,  proceeded  to  attack  the  flocks.^  Worshippers  were  laid 
under  penalties  so  confused  and  ambiguous,  that  none  could  pre- 
cisely determine  the  extent  of  his  danger.  The  act  of  the  35 
Elizabeth  was  put  in  force,  requiring  all  persons  to  attend  at  church, 
under  the  severest  penalties  Justices  were  empowered  to  dissolve 
all  unlawful  assemblies,  and  to  take  as  many  of  the  congregation 
into  custody  as  they  might  deem  proper.  A  jury  was  unnecessary. 
A  single  justice  of  the  peace  and  the  oath  of  an  informer  were  suf- 
ficient. The  work  of  persecution  was  taken  up  with  great  eager- 
ness by  those  whose  former  sufferings  had  exasperated  their  tem- 
pers. But  the  better  part  of  the  episcopalians  soon  cooled.  Dr. 
Laney,  Bishop  of  Peterborough,  "  looked  through  his  fingers,"  to 
use  his  own  phrase,  at  the  nonconformists  in  his  neigiiborhood. 
Saunderson  had  a  list  of  culprits  marked  out  for  prosecution  ;  b  it, 
when  he  was  dying,  he  ordered  it  to  be  burnt.  Dr.  Oosins,  L*isli;;p 
or'  Durham,  though  once  bitter,  became  of  a  more  pacific  Ume  ; 


*  "  Before  the  Conventicle  Act  took  place,  the  laity  were  courageous,  and 
exhorte(/  their  ministers  to  preiush  till  they  went  to  prison  ;  but  when  it  came 
home  to  themselves,  and  they  had  been  once  in  jail,  they  began  to  be  more 
cautious,  and  consulted  among  themselves  how  to  avoid  the  edge  of  the  law  in 
the  best  manner  they  could."  Neal,  vol.  iv.,  chap.  7.  So  true  is  human  nature 
to  itself,  in  every  age  ! 


250  THE   RETURNING    TIDE. 

Gauden  (author  of  Ikon  Basilike),  Wilkins,  Reynolds,  and  some 
others,  were  never  guilty  of  these  outrages. 

What,  in  the  anguish  of  these  trials,  were  the  feelings  of  min- 
isters and  people,  may  be  sufficiently  learned  from  the  following 
extracts.  The  first  describes  the  sentiments  of  Oliver  Heywood  : 
—  "I  am  so  well  satisfied  in  my  refusing  subscription  and  con- 
formity to  the  terms  enjoined  by  law  for  the  exercise  of  my  pub- 
lic ministry,  that,  notwithstanding  all  the  taunts,  rebukes  and 
affronts,  I  have  had  from  men  ;  the  weary  travels  for  many  thou- 
sand miles ;  the  hazardous  meetings,  plunderings  and  imprison- 
ments ;  the  banishment  from  my  own  house,  coming  home  with 
fear  in  the  night,  &c.,  —  notwithstanding  all  this,  I  am  so  fully 
satisfied  in  ray  conscience  that  my  nonconformity  as  a  minister  is 
the  way  of  God,  and  I  have  so  much  peace  in  my  spirit  that  what 
I  do  in  the  main  is  according  to  God's  Word,  that,  if  I  knew  of  all 
these  troubles  beforehand,  and  were  to  begin  again,  I  would  persist 
in  this  course  to  my  dying  day,  and,  if  God  call  me  to  it,  would 
seal  it  with  my  blood." 

Again.  "  Our  adversaries  envy  us  all  our  pains,  and  toils,  and 
hazard,  for  our  dear  Lord  and  the  good  of  sinners.  They  enjoy 
their  rich  livings,  fair  parsonages,  and  fruitful  glebes  ;  they  step 
out  of  their  houses  into  their  churches,  read  their  easy  service,  say 
their  eloquent  orations,  eat  the  fat  and  drink  the  sweet ;  are  com- 
panions with  gentlemen  and  peers  of  the  realm  ;  have  their  thou- 
sands a-year  ;  make  laws  for  us  ;  and  yet  think  much  at  our  hav- 
ing a  poor  livelihood,  and  a  little  honest  work;  weeping  and 
wrestling  with  God  and  sinners  to  do  good.  They  call  us  schis- 
matics and  seditious ;  they  exasperate  magistrates  against  us,  pun- 
ish, banish,  and  imprison  us ;  confiscate  our  goods,  excommunicate 
and  censure  us,  and  think  and  say  we  are  not  worthy  to  live ; 
while  we  live  peaceably,  pray  for  them,  and  dare  challenge  them 
if  ever  they  found  fault  in  us,  save  in  the  matters  of  our  God.  0 
Lord,  judge  between  them  and  us,  and  plead  the  cause  of  thy  ser- 
vants ! " 

"  In  consequence  of  the  Conventicle  Act,"  says  Dr.  Fawcett,  in 


THE   RETURNING   TIDE.  251 

his  life  of  Hey  wood,  "  the  jails  in  the  several  counties  were  quickly 
filled  with  dissenting  protestants.  If  the  money  was  not  imme- 
diately paid,  there  was  a  seizure  of  their  effects.  .  The  goods  and 
wares  were  taken  out  of  the  shops,  and  cattle  were  driven  away, 
and  sold  for  half  their  value.  If  the  seizure  did  not  answ^er  the 
fine,  the  minister  and  people  were  hurried  to  prison,  and  put  under 
close  confinement  for  three  or  six  months.  Religious  assemblies 
were  frequently  held  at  midnight,  and  in  the  most  private  places  ; 
and,  notwithstanding  all  their  caution,  the  poor  people  were  fre- 
quently disturbed.  Yet  it  is  very  remarkable  that,  under  all 
their  hardships,  they  never  were  known  to  make  the  least  resist- 
ance, but  went  quietly  along  with  the  officers,  when  they  could  not 
fly  from  them." 

The  well-known  Vavasor  Powell  gives,  about  the  same  period,  a 
similar  description  of  the  measures  taken  in  Wales  : 

'•  There  have  been  very  violent  proceedings,  especially  in  some 
counties,  where  some  poor  and  peaceable  people  have  been 
dragged  out  of  their  beds,  and,  without  regard  of  sex  or  age,  have 
been  driven  on  their  feet  some  twenty  miles  to  prison,  and  forced, 
though  in  the  heat  of  summer,  till  their  feet  were  much  blistered, 
and  they  ready  to  fall  with  faintness,  to  run  by  the  troopers' 
horses,  receiving  many  blows  and  beatings.  Others,  as  if  they  had 
been  brute  beasts,  were  driven  into  pinfolds  or  pounds,  where  they 
were  kept  several  hours,  their  persecutors,  in  the  interim,  drinking 
in  an  ale-house,  and  forcing  the  poor  people  to  pay  for  it,  though 
they  were  not  suffered  to  taste ;  afterwards  bringing  them  to  the 
sea-side,  and  leaving  them  in  the  night  in  danger  of  being  swal- 
lowed up  by  the  sea,  and  blasphemously  saying  that  a  dog  that -was 
with  them  was  the  spirit  that  led  them.  Others  were  committed 
to  prison  at  pleasure,  and  kept  there  many  months ;  and  yet  their 
cattle  and  sheep,  to  the  number  of  above  six  hundred,  were  taken 
from  them  and  sold.  Some  were  forced,  when  they  were  called  to 
the  quarter  sessions,  to  walk  in  chains,  which  should  not  by  law, 
upon  any  such  grounds,  be  put  upon  them,  unless  they  had  at- 
tempted to  make  an  escape,  or  break  prison.     Others,  who  were 


252  THE    KETURNIXG    TIFJ-]. 

quietly  met  together,  after  their  usual  manner  for  many  years,  to 
worship  God  and  edify  one  another,  were  cast  into  prison  without 
any  examination,  showing  cause,  or  commitment,  that  they  could 
understand,  contrary  to  the  laws  of  this  and  other  nations. 

"  Nay,  such  was  the  enmity  of  the  seed  of  the  serpent  against 
the  seed  of  the  woman,  that,  though  the  king  was  pleased  by  his 
proclamation  to  grant  Christian  liberty  for  some  time,  yet  upon  the 
next  Lord's  day  following  after  the  receipt  of  the  said  proclamation, 
some  of  the  officers  of  one  corporation  dragged  and  hailed  some 
poor  women,  who  were  hearing  the  word  of  God,  into  an  ale-house, 
and  kept  them  there  till  after  night,  and  until  they  made  them  pay 
for  the  ale  which  these  disturbers  did  drink." 

The  following  (somewhat  miscellaneous)  extracts  from  "  the 
liecords  of  a  Church  of  Christ  meeting  in  Broadmead,  Bristol, 
1640 — 1687,"  will  amply  describe  the  character  of  the  times : 
"  Upon  the  26th  day  of  September,  1664,  Mr.  Ewin  and  brother 
Simpson  were  released  out  of  prison ;  which  long  and  tedious 
imprisonment  so  decayed  our  pastor,  and  his  straining  his  voice  in 
prison  to  preach,  which  he  would  every  Lord's  day,  that  the  people 
that  gathered  together  under  the  prison  walls  might  hear,  he  being 
about  four  pair  of  stairs  high  from  them,  that  when  he  came  out 
of  prison,  after  the  first  sermon  he  preached  abroad,  he  fainted 
away,  and  declined  continually,  (so)  that  it  hastened  his  days."  ^  * 

"  Thus  we  were  hunted  by  the  Nimrods ;  but  the  Lord  hid  us 
many  Lord's  days  at  brother  Ellis',  in  Corn-street,  that  we  had 
some  peace,  though  the  meeting  was  numerous ;  yet  we  were 
assaulted  there  many  a  time  by  men,  but  saved  by  God.  One 
time,  upon  a  week-day  meeting,  which  was  likewise  there  for  a 
long  time,  a  guard  of  musketeers  was  sent  for  to  take  us  into  cus- 
tody ;  and  then,  being  in  the  evening,  Ave  were  conveyed  into  a 
cellar  under  ground,  that  went  into  Ballance  (Baldwin)  street,  and 
so  we  escaped,  and  they  (were)  disappointed  through  the  Lord."  ^  ^ 

"  Another  time,  at  brother  Ellis'  upon  a  Lord's  day,  the  mayor 
and  aldermen,  with  officers,  beset  the  house,  and  at  last  broke  open 
the  back  door,  and  so  came  in  ;  but,  in  the  mean  time,  our  brother, 


THE   RETURNING   TIDE.  253 

having  before  contrived,  by  a  great  cupboard,  to  hide  a  garret  door 
he  sent  up  most  of  the  men  out  of  the  meeting  into  the  said  garret, 
and  some  were  concealed.  But  the  mayor  and  Sir  John  sent 
away  thirty-one  of  the  members  and  auditors  to  prison,  to  Bride- 
well, for  a  month,  upon  their  first  conviction." 

BristoJ.  witnessed  at  this  time  the  conspiracy  of  an  intolerant 
bishop,  a  drunken  vintner,  and  an  attorney,  against  the  noncon- 
formists. The  bishop  took  his  place  daily  on  the  justice-bench,  and 
threatened  the  religious  men  of  his  town  with  all  kinds  of  severity. 
To  meet  the  storm,  the  various  nonconforming  churches,  two  bap- 
tist, the  presbyterian,  and  the  independent,  combined  into  a  kind 
of  protective  association  : 

"  It  pleased  the  Lord  to  suffer  Hellier  aforesaid"  (the attorney), 
"  the  first  day,  as  he  began  against  us,  to  be  caught  in  a  snare. 
For  when  he  came  to  Mr.  Gifibrd's  meeting,  it  happened,  by  prov- 
idence disposed,  that  at  that  morning  another  brother,  that  did  use 
to  preach  every  other  Lord's  day  there,  namely,  brother  Harford, 
was  then  preaching  when  Hellier  came  in.  But  Hellier  goes  before 
the  mayor,  and  swears  that  it  was  Andrew  Gifibrd  was  preaching 
then,  upon  the  27th  of  September  last.  So  there  was  a  warrant, 
as  well  as  for  other  ministers,  so  for  Andrew  Gifibrd.  Which  war- 
rants being  delivered  to  the  chief  constable  of  James'  ward,  who 
would  not  execute  the  warrants,  but  would  make  evasions ;  and 
some  Lord's  days  would  get  out  of  town,  when  he  might  take  up 
the  ministers,  who  still  kept  their  preaching  ;  but  we  sufiered  the 
chief  constable  to  take  brother  Andrew  Gifi"ord,  because  we  knew 
him  to  be  clear  of  that  information.  And  he  being  brought  before 
the  mayor,  Hellier  had  the  confidence  to  swear,  upon  the  holy 
record,  that  this  was  the  man,  swearing  to  his  person,  although  it 
was  another ;  and  notwithstanding  it  was  put  to  him  several  times 
to  consider,  lest  he  was  mistaken,  yet  he  swore  positively  that  was 
the  man.  Thus  Hellier  took  a  false  oath,  and  there  were  ten 
present  that  did  witness  the  contrary,  and  four  took  their  oaths  it 
was  another  did  then  preach  ;  so  the  magistrates  said  Hellier  had 
sworn  false.  And  so  they  troubled  us  for  several  months,  but  W6 
22 


254  THE    RETURNING    TIDE. 

kept  our  meetings,  and  our  pastors  preaching,  still  pleading  oui 
rights  by  law." 

.SL,  *xt.  ^  At-  4if  At- 

•77'  '7^  -7v-  V?"  "/v-  'TV' 

"  Now,  three  of  our  ministers  being  imprisoned,  some  of  each 
congregation  of  the  brethren  met  together  to  consult  how  to  carry 
on  our  meetings,  that  we  might  keep  to  our  duty,  and  edify  one 
another  now  our  pastors  were  gone.  Some  even  were  ready  of 
thinking  to  give  off,  viz  :  of  the  presbyterians ;  that  they  could  not 
carry  it  on,  because  of  their  principle,  (which)  was  not  to  hear  a 
man  not  bred  up  at  the  university,  and  not  ordained.  But  the 
Lord  appeared,  and  helped  us  to  prevail  with  them  to  hold  on  and 
keep  up  their  meetings.  And  for  the  first,  and  (for)  some  time, 
we  concluded  this  :  to  come  and  assemble  together,  and  for  one  to 
pray  and  read  a  chapter,  and  then  sing  a  psalm,  and  after  conclude 
with  prayer ;  and  so  two  brethren  to  carry  on  the  meeting  one 
day,  and  two  another,  for  a  while,  to  try  what  they  would  do  with 
us.  So  we  did,  and  ordered  one  of  the  doors  of  our  meeting-place 
to  be  made  fast,  and  all  to  come  in  at  one,  but  open  it  when  we 
go  forth ;  and  to  appoint  some  youth  or  two  of  them,  to  be  out  at 
the  door,  every  meeting,  to  watch  when  Hellier  or  other  informers 
or  officers  were  coming ;  and  so  to  come  in,  one  of  them,  and  give 
us  notice  thereof.  Also,  some  of  the  hearers,  women  and  sisters, 
would  sit  and  crowd  in  the  stairs,  when  we  did  begin  the  meeting 
with  any  exercise,  that  so  the  informers  might  not  too  suddenly 
come  in  upon  us  ;  by  reason  of  which  they  were  prevented  divers 
times."  ^  =^  ^  "To  prevent  spies  that  might  come  into  the 
room  as  hearers,  and  yet  that  no  strangers  or  persons  we  knew  not 
might  not  be  hindered  from  coming  into  our  meeting,  whether  good 
or  bad,  to  hear  the  gospel,  we  contrived  a  curtain  to  be  hung  in 
the  meeting  place ;  that  did  enclose  as  much  room  as  above  fifty 
might  sit  w'^^hin  it ;  and  among  those  men,  he  that  preached  should 
stand ;  that  so,  if  any  informer  was  privately  in  the  room  as  a 
hearer,  he  might  hear  him  that  spake,  but  could  not  see  him,  and 
thereby  not  know  him.  And  there  were  brethren  Avithout  the 
curtain,  that  would   hinder  any  from  going  within  the  curtain, 


THE    RETURNING   TIDE.  255 

that  tliey  did  not  know  to  be  friends  ;  and  let  whoso  wouid  come 
into  our  meeting,  to  hear  without  the  curtain.  And  when  our 
company  and  time  were  come  to  begin  the  meeting,  we  drew  the 
curtain,  and  filled  up  the  stairs  with  women  and  maids  that  sat  in 
it,  that  the  informers  could  not  quickly  run  up. 

"  And  when  we  had  notice  that  the  informers  or  officers  were 
coming,  we  caused  the  minister,  or  brother,  tliat  preached,  to  for- 
bear and  sit  down.  Then  we  drew  back  the  curtain,  laying  the 
whole  room  open  that  they  might  see  us  all.  And  so  all  the  peo- 
ple begin  to  sing  a  psalm  that,  at  the  beginning  of  the  meeting,  we 
did  always  name  what  psalm  we  would  sing,  if  the  informers,  or 
the  mayor  or  his  officers,  come  in.  Thus  till  when  they  came  in 
we  were  singing,  so  that  they  could  not  find  any  one  preaching, 
but  all  singing.  And,  at  our  meeting,  we  ordered  it  so  that  none 
read  the  psalm  after  the  first  line,  but  every  one  brought  their 
Bibles,  and  so  read  for  themselves ;  that  they  might  not  lay  hold 
of  any  one  for  preaching,  or  as  much  as  reading  the  psalm,  and  so 
to  imprison  any  more  for  that,  as  they  had  our  ministers.  Which 
means  the  Lord  blessed,  that  many  times  when  the  mayor  came 
they  were  all  singing,  that  he  knew  not  who  to  take  away  more 
than  another.  And  so  when  the  mayor,  Ilellier,  or  the  other 
informers,  had  taken  our  names,  and  done  what  they  would,  and 
carried  away  whom  they  pleased,  and  when  they  were  gone  down 
out  of  our  rooms,  then  we  ceased  singing,  and  drew  the  curtain 
again,  and  the  minister,  or  brother,  would  go  on  with  the  rest  of 
his  sermon,  until  they  came  again,  which  sometimes  they  would 
thrice  in  one  meeting  disturb  us,  —  or  until  our  time  was  expired. 
This  was  our  constant  manner  during  this  persecution,  in  Olive's 
mayoralty,  and  we  were  by  the  Lord  helped,  that  we  were  in  a 
good  measure  edified,  and  our  enemies  often  disappointed.  Laus 
Deo:'  ^ 

As  the  public  mind  became  aroused,  the  lay  nonconformists 
looked  with  increasing  disapprobation  on  the  conduct  of  Baxter 
and  others,  who,  instead  of  manfully  protesting  against  the  perse- 

*  Broadmead  Keoords. 


256  THE   RETURNING   TIDE. 

cuting  system,  conformed  as  far  as  was  possible.  None  suspected 
Baxter's  motives ;  but  he  was  a  paradox  :  a  combatant  for  peace, 
and  disputatious  for  charity. 

The  summer  of  1665  was  memorable  for  its  close  and  oppressive 
heat.  The  connection  between  cometary  influences  and  a  sultry 
atmosphere  has  been  often  observed,  and  it  was  this  year  very 
remarkable.  No  less  than  three  comets  had  appeared  during 
twelve  months,  and  astrologers  derived  from  the  phenomona  appal- 
ling auguries,  whilst  even  religious  men  looked  on  in  fear  and 
dismay.  It  added  to  Baxter's  horror  at  the  wickedness  of  the 
times,  that  such  portents  could  be  disregarded.  The  great  plague 
of  London  followed.  The  metropolis  singularly  invited  such  a 
desolation.  Its  ill-built  wooden  houses,  huddled  promiscuously  on 
each  other,  and  forbidding,  from  the  nature  of  their  construction, 
the  access  of  free  air,  —  its  imperfect  sewerage,  and  the  absence  of 
all  adequate  sanitary  laws,  —  had  often  before  this  period  provoked 
this  fatal  epidemic  ;  but  it  now  burst  forth  with  fury  to  which  all 
previous  experience  oflfered  no  parallel.  The  crowded  horrors  of 
that  period  have  been  amply  and  graphically  drawn  by  Defoe  in 
his  memorials  of  the  plague  year.  During  a  single  night  ten 
thousand  persons  died.  At  the  time  of  this  infliction  Baxter  was 
a  resident,  with  his  new  wife,  in  the  house  which  had  belonged  to 
Hampden,  now  occupied  by  his  son.  But  he  did  not  behold  the 
fearful  desolation  unmoved  ;  and  the  British  Museum  still  pre- 
serves a  broad-sheet,  entitled,  "Short  Instructions  for  the  Sick, 
especially  those  who,  by  Contagion,  or  otherwise,  are  deprived  of 
the  presence  of  a  Faithful  Pastor.  By  Richard  Baxter."  When 
the  sound  in  health  fled  from  the  pestilential  city  in  crowds,  and 
the  parochial  ministers  deserted  their  posts  through  fear  of  con- 
tagion, a  little  respite  was  hoped  for  by  the  nonconformists,  and 
many  of  them  gladly  availed  themselves  of  the  opportunity  to 
prosecute,  in  the  midst  of  disease  and  death,  their  heavenly  calling. 
Yet  the  malice  of  Clarendon,  and  Sheldon,  now  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  was  proof  even  against  such  a  visitation ;  and  they 
employed  themselves  in  the  interval  in  forging  "  the  Five  Mi 


THE   RETURNING   TIDE.  257 

Act."  This  act  set  forth  a  certain  oath,  declaring  the  conviction 
of  the  person  taking  it  that  it  is  unlawful  to  take  up  arms 
against  the  sovereign,  and  promising  not  to  attempt  an  alteration 
of  the  government  either  in  church  or  state ;  and  it  provided  that 
those  who  refused  to  take  such  an  oath  should  not  come  within 
five  miles  of  any  corporate  city,  or  within  five  miles  of  any  town  or 
place  in  which  they  had  been  heretofore  settled,  or  in  which  they 
had  preached,  under  enormous  penalties.  By  this  act  the  non- 
conformists were  a  second  time  driven  from  their  homes. 

In  the  following  year  another  tremendous  visitation  occurred. 
"  September  2,  1666,  began,"  says  Baxter,  as  quoted  by  Calamy, 
"  that  dreadful  fire,  whereby  the  best  and  one  of  the  fairest  cities 
in  the  world  was  turned  into  ashes  and  ruins  in  three  days'  space. 
The  season  had  been  exceeding  dry  before,  and  the  wind  in  the 
east  when  the  fire  began.  The  people,  having  none  to  conduct 
them  aright,  could  do  nothing  to  resist  it,  but  stood  and  saw  their 
houses  burnt  without  remedy,  the  engines  being  presently  out  of 
order  and  useless.  The  streets  were  crowded  with  people  and 
carts,  to  carry  away  what  goods  they  could  get ;  and  they  that 
were  most  active  and  befriended  got  carts  and  saved  much,  while 
the  rest  lost  almost  all  they  had.  The  loss  in  houses  and  goods 
could  scarce  be  valued.  Among  the  rest,  the  loss  of  books  was  a 
very  great  detriment  to  the  interest  of  piety  and  learning.  ^  ^ 
To  see  the  fields  filled  with  heaps  of  goods,  and  sumptuous  build- 
ings, curious  rooms,  costly  furniture,  and  household  stufi",  —  yea, 
warehouses  and  furnished  shops  and  libraries,  &c.j  all  on  a  flame, 
whilst  none  durst  come  near  to  receive  anything ;  to  see  the  king 
and  nobles  ride  about  the  streets,  beholding  all  these  desolations, 
while  none  could  afibrd  the  least  relief;  to  see  the  air,  as  far  as  it 
could  be  beheld,  so  filled  with  smoke  that  the  sun  shined  through 
it  with  a  color  like  blood,  &c.  But  the  dolefullest  sight  of  all 
"was,  afterwards,  to  see  what  a  ruinous  confused  place  the  city  was, 
by  chimneys  and  steeples  only  standing  in  the  midst  of  cellars  and 
heaps  of  rubbish ;  so  that  it  was  hard  to  know  where  the  streets 
22=* 


258  THE   RETURNING   TIDE. 

had  been,  and  dangerous  of  a  long  time  to  pass  through  the  ruins, 
because  of  vaults  and  fires  in  them."  ^ 

True  to  their  function,  the  nonconformist  ministers  availed  them- 
selves of  the  occasion  to  open  houses  for  divine  SQYV"<ie,  which  were 
crowded  with  worshippers. 

Some  of  these  churches  were  built  of  boards,  and  were  called 
tabernacles.  Most  of  the  leading  dissenting  chuvches  of  London 
originated  about  this  period. 

In  the  following  year,  Clarendon,  then  lord  chancellor,  was  im- 
peached and  discarded.  His  retirement  was  tlie  consequence  of 
intrigues  disgraceful  to  the  court  and  revolting  to  the  nation.  The 
Duke  of  Buckingham,  the  most  abandoned  of  debauchees,  suc- 
ceeded him  in  the  favor  of  the  monarch,  and  the  nonconformists 
gained  some  respite  by  the  change.  The  king,  influenced  by 
Buckingham,  and  intent  on  gaining  a  popish  ascendency,  endeav- 
ored to  moderate  the  stringency  of  preceding  enactments.  But 
the  parliament  refused  to  be  won.  The  attempt  made  about  this 
time  to  effect  another  scheme  of  comprehension  irritated  Sheldon, 
who  addressed  a  circular  letter  to  the  bishops,  demanding  from 
them  an  account  of  the  nonconformist  ministers  in  their  several 
dioceses.  Under  this  proceeding  Baxter  was  seized  and  impris- 
oned. He  demanded  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  which,  because  he 
was  favored  by  the  court,  was  granted.  Many  friends  at  this  con- 
juncture offered  to  assist  him  with  their  purses,  but  he  refused  all 
aid  except  for  his  law  and  prison  charges. 

Baffled  in  his  attempts  to  affect  a  compromise  with  the  episcopa- 
lians, Baxter  next  endeavored  to  make  one  with  the  independents. 
A  correspondence  on  the  subject  took  place  between  him  and  Dr. 
Owen,  but  it  reached  no  issue,  partly  from  a  want  of  agreement 
between  the  two  correspondents  regarding  the  power  of  the  civil 


*  Calamy's  Baxter.  Calamy  had  reason  to  be  interested  in  this  event.  His 
grandfather,  Mr.  E.  Calamy,  who  refused  a  bishopric  under  Charles  II.,  was  so 
affected  by  the  sight  of  the  ruins,  that  it  oirought  on  his  death.  He  had  been 
jnprisoned  for  nonconformity. 


THE   RETURNING   TIDE.  259 

In  the  year  1766  Baxter's  friends  built  him  a  new  meeting- 
house, in  Oxenden-street.  He  had  not  preached  more  than  once  in 
this  building  when  new  persecutions  awaited  him.  Baxter  was 
surprised  in  his  own  house,  and  served  with  a  warrant  under  the 
corporation  act,  and  five  more  warrants  claiming  one  hundred  and 
ninety-five  pounds  for  four  sermons.  His  extreme  illness  rescued 
him  from  prison,  but  the  warrant  was  executed  upon  his  books 
and  goods.  Fearing  new  seizures,  he  was  compelled  to  go  into 
private  lodgings.  Again  he  tells  us,  "  While  I  lay  in  pain  and 
languishing,  the  justices  of  the  session  sent  warrants  to  apprehend 
me,  about  a  thousand  more  being  in  catalogue  to  be  bound  to  their 
good  behavior.  I  refused  to  open  my  chamber-door  to  them,  their 
warrant  not  being  to  break  it  open ;  but  they  set  six  ofiicers  at  my 
study  door,  who  watched  all  night,  and  kept  me  from  my  bed  and 
food ;  so  that  the  next  day  I  yielded  to  them,  who  carried  me, 
scarce  able  to  stand,  to  the  sessions,  and  bound  me  in  four  hundred 
pounds." 

Other  parts  of  the  reign  of  Charles  II.  are  full  of  incidents 
illustrative  of  the  principles  set  forth  in  this  volume  ;  but  these 
must  be  briefly  told.  England  became,  under  the  pressure  of  the 
king's  unprincipled  necessities,  a  mere  appanage  of  France.  Charles 
endeavored  to  prepare  the  way  for  Roman  Catholic  ascendency. 
The  parliament,  jealous  of  his  intentions,  labored  for  the  passing 
of  penal  enactments.  Nonconformists,  who  would  have  rejoiced 
at  even  indulgence,  hesitated  to  accept  it  when  oiFered  by  the  king 
"  in  virtue  of  his  supreme  power  in  matters  ecclesiastical."  The 
contest  between  the  king  and  his  parliament  gave  birth  to  the 
Test  Act,  which  provided  that  all  persons  holding  office,  civil  or 
military,  should  take  the  oath  of  supremacy,  declare  against  tran- 
substantiation,  and  receive  the  sacrament  according  to  the  forms  of 
the  Church  of  England.  Then  came  the  rumors  of  a  popish  plot, 
Yflaizh.  all  feared,  some  believed,  but  none  understood.  The  nation 
was  hastening  to  ruin.  The  exchequer  was  bankrupt.  Public 
morality  was  destroyed.  The  court  was  dissolute  to  a  degree 
which,  in  the  present  day,  seems  incredible.     The  church,  de- 


J26()  THE   RETURNING    TIDE. 

prived  of  its  most  faithful  ministers,  was  left  a  prey  to  clergymen 
who,  though  not  without  bright  exceptions,  were  mostly  careless, 
whilst  many  were  dissolute,  and  some  abandoned.  The  noncon- 
formists were  indulged  or  persecuted,  according  to  the  policy  or 
the  humor  of  the  moment.  The  metropolis  was  a  scene  of  con- 
stant agitation.  The  ofl&ce  of  jailer  alone  was  profitable.  The 
Koman  Catholics  were  dispossessed  of  their  seats  in  parliament. 
The  Duke  of  York,  avowing  himself  a  Romanist,  was  excluded 
from  the  privy  council.  Rumors  of  plots  possessed  men's  minds. 
NoblcKcn  suffered  death  under  the  suspicion  of  indefinable  trea- 
sons. Judges  and  juries  were  alike  servile  and  venal.  The  mon- 
archy was  hastening  to  its  extinction.  At  length,  jaded,  sated, 
disgrraced,  contemned,  Charles  II.  died  in  the  arms  of  his  mistress, 
cot^ifbrted  in  his  last  moments  by  the  thought  that  he  should  reach 
•*  Aeaven's  gates "  by  means  of  the  rites  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
/fiurch,  —  leaving  a  name  characterized  by  no  good  quality,  but 
^asy  address  and  careless  facility ;  a  saunterer,  a  reveller,  a  lam- 
pooner, a  liar,  a  profligate ;  reckless  of  the  nation's  honor,  and 
indifferent  to  his  own ;  a  bad  husband,  an  untrusted  friend,  a 
merciless  judge,  a  despotic  king ;  pilloried,  till  the  latest  day  of 
England's  history,  as  one  by  whom  its  liberties  were  betrayed,  its 
honor  humiliated,  its  greatness  prostituted  and  destroyed.  Such 
was  the  penalty  paid  by  a  nation  for  its  undiscerning  enthusiasm ; 
by  a  religious  party  for  its  tenacity  after  uniformity,  and  its 
struggles  for  the  covenant;  by  an  establishment  for  "its  most 
religious  and  gracious  king." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE   PRICE   OF   RELIGIOUS    CONVICTIONS. 

•  If  W)  come  to  prohibiting,  there  is  nothing  so  likely  to  be  prohibited  a« 
truta  itself."  —  Milton. 


F  all  the  scenes  which  the  sun  shines 
upon  in  the  north  of  England,  there 
is  surely  none  more  lovely  than  that 
which  encircles  the  famous  castle  of  Lan- 
caster. The  Eoman  poet  tells  us  that 
in  his  day  it  was  not  the  good  fortune  of 
every  one  to  go  to  Corinth.  Neither  is  a 
visit  to  the  lakes  within  the  compass  of 
every  tourist.  Should  the  reader  lack 
the  reality,  he  must  be  contented  with  the 
^^  pictorial,  which,  however,  we  may  assure 
him,  is  a  very  inferior  affair.  The  name 
^^:lt^_  Lancashire  "  indicates  its  origin,  —  the 

JOHN  OF  gaunt's  gatewat,  Chcstcr   (or  Castle)   of  the  Lune,  which 
LANCASTER.  rivcr   flashes  its  rapid   waters   in   a  full 

mountain-stream  above  the  town,  where  it  abates  its  haste,  and 
flows  on  more  gently  till  it  yields  to  the  tides  of  the  ocean  be- 
neath its  walls.  The  castle  itself  stands  on  a  considerable  emi- 
nence, not,  like  Windsor  Castle,  the  highest  point  of  the  landscape, 
but  reposing  on  an  altitude  surmounted  by  the  greater  eminences 
of  an  amphitheatre  of  hills.  The  present  building  is  not  the  first 
strong-hold  by  which  the  town  has  been  distinguished  ;  it  is  the 
successor  of  one  much  older,  but  now  entirely  demolished,  dating 
back  from  Saxon,  if  not  from  Roman,  times.     From  the  now. 


262  THE    PRICE   OF    RELIGIOUS   CONVICTIONS. 

existing  castle,  however,  so  placed  as  to  give  protection  to  the  shiD- 
ping  of  its  day;  and  a  fastness  of  considerable  celebrity  in  ancient 
story,  did  the  county  of  Lancashire  derive  its  name. 

I  do  not  know  how  Lancaster  may  look  at  all  seasons  ;  but  I 
know  how  it  looked  on  nearly  the  first  spring  morning  of  the  pres- 
ent year.  I  had  been  directed  to  the  Scotforth  road  (the  name  is 
suggestive),  as  presenting  one  of  the  finest  views  of  the  town ;  and 
I  was  not  disappointed.  Lord  Bacon,  it  is  said,  delighted  to 
expose  himself  bareheaded  to  the  rain,  avowing  that  he  loved  the 
spirit  of  nature  to  come  over  him.  Since  the  invention  of  um- 
brellas, his  taste  in  that  respect  seems  to  have  grown  obsolete. 
Wishing  for  the  same  thing,  one  would  seek  it  now  in  another 
form,  and  would  court  the  subtle  essence  rather  in  sunshine  than  in 
shower ;  and  it  is  the  early  warmth  of  the  year  that  seems  best  to 
realize  it.  The  reader  shall  suppose  this  early  spring.  The 
hedges  iu  their  vernal  beauty;  the  rivulet  stealing  down  the 
gentle  eminence  "  by  its  own  sweet  will,"  glittering  and  babbling 
in  playful  activity  as  it  goes ;  the  furze,  gaudy  with  its  rich  golden 
blossom,  yet  furnishing  a  welcome  ornament  when  there  is  not 
another  flower  within  view ;  —  let  these  be  the  foreground  of  my 
picture.  The  mid-ground  is  the  valley  of  the  Lune,  stretching 
itself  out  in  wide  and  varied  luxuriance,  while  houses,  gardens, 
mills,  churches,  trees,  bridges  and  ships,  define  its  course,  till  it 
pours  its  waters  into  the  Irish  sea,  which  is  from  this  spot  dis- 
tinctly visible.  Behind  this,  again,  is  the  usually  placid  and 
unrippled  bay  of  Morecamb,  famous  for  those  treacherous  sands 
which  have  deluded  and  destroyed  many  a  traveller  ;  and  further 
in  the  distance  still,  the  eye  rests  on  the  Westmoreland  mount- 
ains: 

"  Rocks,  hills  and  crags,  confusedly  hurled. 
The  fragments  of  an  earlier  world," 

looking  as  if  some  pre- Adamite  giants  had  been  at  play ;  or,  as  if 
there  had  been  a  thought  of  erecting  some  Titanic  temple,  which 
never  proceeded  further  than  th*  first  excavations. 


THE   PRICE   OP   RELIGIOUS    CONVICTIONS.  263 

In  the  midst  of  this  wide-spread  panorama  stands,  elevated  on 
a  considerable  hiil,  a  mass  of  building,  in  such  a  position  as  that 
it  seems  the  picture  to  which  the  landscape  itself  is  but  the  frame, 
—  the  Castle  of  Lancaster.  Viewed  from  a  distance,  its  aspect  is 
extremely  imposing.  But  a  nearer  view  dispels  nfach  of  the  illu- 
sion, and  presents  an  uncomfortable  piece  of  modern  restoration. 
The  fo'i'a-vt  Jiingles  with  the  gay.  Gothic  windows,  brilliant  with 
plate  glass,  force  themselves  on  the  eye  in  such  situations  as,  in  the 
original  building,  would  have  altogether  destroyed  its  strength  as  a 
fortress.  An  old  Roman  tower,  or  that  which  is  called  such,  has 
been  cased  over,  to  preserve  it,  upon  no  conceivable  principle  except 
that  which  dictated  the  conduct  of  the  wife  of  the  Vicar  of  Wake- 
field, when  she  gave  a  golden  guinea  to  each  of  her  daughters,  with 
a  strict  charge  that  they  were  on  no  account  to  use  it.  The  inhab- 
itants of  Lancaster  have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  the  tower 
is  there.  The  further  advantage  they  derive  from  its  possession  is 
inconceivable.  But,  as  we  stand  upon  this  Scotforth-road,  these 
renovations  arc  happily  unseen,  nor  can  we  here  perceive  what  "  a 
thing  of  shreds  and  patches  "  the  building  has  become.  We  gladly 
forget  the  mangled  present,  and  throw  ourselves  on  the  past.  Here, 
in  the  reign  of  Titus  the  Roman  emperor,  Julius  Agricola  formed 
a  fortress,  and  sent  hence  the  military  stores  requisite  for  the 
northern  Roman  stations.  Here  the  Picts  and  Scots  established 
themselves.  Here  Arthur,  the  king  of  the  round  table,  conducted 
a  successful  siege  against  the  Saxons,  who,  however,  subsequently 
regained  their  fortress.  The  Danes  afterwards  invested  the  town, 
and  committed  great  devastations  on  the  surrounding  country. 
Roger  of  Poitou,  one  of  the  retainers  of  the  fierce  "  conqueror," 
ouilt  the  keep,  and  at  last  rebelled  against  his  liege  lord.  King 
John  was  himself,  at  one  period,  lord  of  Lancaster,  and  its  next 
possessor  became  one  of  the  barons  who  wrested  Magna  Charta 
^rom  the  unwilling  sovereign.  One  of  his  successors  joined  the 
ranks  of  Simon  de  Montfort,  and  was  deprived  of  his  possessions 
oy  Henry  III. ;  another  headed  the  barons,  who  opposed  Piers 
Gavestone  and  the  Despensers.     One  of  the  Earls  of  Lancastei 


264  THE   PllICE   OF    IIELIGIOUS    CONVICTIONS. 

was  foremost  in  the  battle  of  Poictiers,  and  entertained  John,  King 
of  France,  when  brought  over  to  England  a  prisoner.  By  marriage 
with  the  daughter  'of  this  noble,  created  by  Edward  III.  Duke  of 


J 


LANCASTER   CASTLE. THE   PRISON    OF   GEORGE   FOX. 

Lancaster,  John  of  Gaunt  became  possessed  of  the  castle  and  the 
title.  He  built  the  entrance  towers,  which  rise  up  in  such  majestic 
grandeur  before  the  eye.  His  son,  Henry  of  Bolingbroke,  was  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  of  England's  constitutional  kings.  From 
that  day  Lancaster  became  an  appanage  of  the  crown.  Edward  IV. 
escaped  hither  from  York.  During  the  civil  wars  Lancaster  was 
a  strong  refuge  of  the  royalists.  Cromwell,  in  person,  besieged 
it.  Bradshaw,  at  the  time  when  he  sat  as  judge  upon  Charles  I., 
was  sheriff  of  Lancashire.  The  pretender  was  proclaimed  in  the 
market-place  of  the  town,  when  the  Earl  of  Derwentwater  headed 
his  rebel  army.  Charles  Edward  passed  hither  on  his  way  to 
England,  and  visited  it  again  on  his  disastrous  retreat.  What 
spot  has  such  an  associated  series  of  historical  incidents  ?  Familiar 
in  its  day  with  a  state  only  second  to  that  of  royalty  itself;  mixed 
up  with  the  successive  crises  of  history,  whether  for  evil  or  for 


THE   PRICE    OF    RliLIGIOUS    CONVICTIONS.  265 

good  ;  the  fortress  of  liberty,  the  home  of  chivalry,  the  highway 
of  armies,  the  scene  of  the  most  gorgeous  hospitalities,  who  could 
have  augured  that  its  destiny  would  end  in  being  what  it  now  is, 
—  a  debtor's  prison  ? 

Amidst  the  many  purposes  to  which  this  fastness  of  "  time-hon- 
ored Lancaster  "  —  if  we  may  transfer  the  epithet  from  John  of 
Gaunt  to  the  place  whence  he  derived  his  title — has  been  applied, 
during  the  vicissitudes  of  its  singular  history,  none,  at  the  present 
moment,  interests  us  more  than  its  having  been  the  prison  of  some 
of  the  martyrs  of  religious  liberty.  The  founder  of  the  castle  in 
its  present  form,  John  of  Gaunt,  has  been  already  mentioned  as  a 
temporary  patron  of  England's  first  reformer,  though  he  obeyed  in 
this  connection  the  promptings  of  ambition,  rather  than  those  of 
conscience.  Our  present  reference  to  Lancaster  is  associated  with 
a  later  period. 

Among  the  sects  which  sprang  up  in  England  during  the  time 
of  the  great  civil  wars,  scarcely  any  was  more  frequently  men- 
tioned than  that  of  the  "quakers."  The  term  was  one  of  reproach, 
said  to  have  been  first  given  to  the  body  by  some  of  the  independ- 
ents ;  but  it  covered  with  its  contemptuous  designation  many  men 
of  large  hearts,  earnest  zeal,  and  unquestionable  integrity.  Our 
object,  in  these  pages,  is  not  to  advocate  any  definite  form  of  reli- 
gious opinion,  but  to  endeavor  to  do  some  justice  to  all ;  and  none 
but  a  prejudiced  observer,  looking  on  the  personal  and  social  vir- 
tues which  the  system  called  "  quakerism  "  carries  in  its  train,  can 
fail  to  distinguish  many  points  worthy  of  an  emphatic  commend- 
ation. 

He  would  be  a  bold  man  who  should  assert  that,  in  the  early 
days  of  their  history,  the  leaders  of  that  body  now  called  quakers 
never  overran  the  bounds  of  prudence,  or  even  of  constitutional 
liberty.  That  they  were  men  of  the  deepest  religious  sincerity 
must  be  apparent  to  the  most  superficial  observer.  It  is  also  most 
evident  that  many  of  the  convictions  they  strongly  entertained 
were  forced  upon  them  by  the  irreligion,  inconsistency  and  heart- 
less formalism,  of  their  times.  The  early  Friends  were  as  magnan- 
23 


266  THE   PRICE    OF   RELIGIOUS   CONVICTIONS. 

imous  in  avowing  these  convictions  as  tliey  were  earnest  in  adopt- 
ing them.  They  were  under  the  influence  of  an  energy  for  truth 
SO  powerful  as  to  out-run  ordinary  calculations.  But,  unless  we 
were  prepared  to  assert,  not  only  that  conscience  is  above  all  law, 
but  that  law  has  nothing  to  do  with  any  form  in  which  that  con- 
science may  assert  itself,  even  when  it  interferes  with  the  liberties 
of  others,  we  must  demur  to  some  of  their  manifestations ;  nor, 
probably,  will  any  modern  follower  of  the  tenets  of  the  earlier 
Friends  greatly  differ  from  us  in  doing  so.  When,  invading  the 
quietude  of  churches,  they  debated  before  the  assembled  congrega- 
tions the  doctrines  which  the  preacher  had  just  delivered ;  or  when 
they  attacked,  before  his  flock,  the  personal  qualifications  of  their 
minister  himself,  they  exceeded  the  bounds  which  the  largest  defi- 
nition of  religious  liberty  will  allow.  It  was  not,  however,  against 
such  ofiences  as  these,  considered  in  the  light  of  misdemeanors,  and 
justly  noticeable  as  such,  that  the  civil  powers  of  that  day  exclu- 
sively or  even  mainly  proceeded,  but  against  the  right  they  claimed 
to  hold  opinions  not  recognized  by  any  existing  system.  Their 
refusal  of  oaths  and  tithes,  their  preaching  in  markets  and  other 
public  places,  their  declining  to  take  off  their  hats  before  magis- 
trates, were  their  main  offences,  and  for  these  they  suffered  severely. 
When  they  had  increased  so  much  as  to  hold  assemblies  of  their 
own,  —  one  of  them  being  in  a  house  known  in  after  years  by  the 
name  of  the  Bull  and  Mouth,  Aldersgate-street,  —  they  were  often 
violently  molested,  under  pretence  of  their  being  engaged  in  trea- 
sonable conspiracies,  and  an  order  against  unlawful  assemblies  was 
especially  directed  against  them.  They  justly  accused  the  govern- 
ment of  Cromwell  of  great  inconsistency,  in  thus  dealing  with 
them,  especially  after  his  professions  of  liberty  of  conscience ;  and 
many  were  the  appeals  they  addressed  to  him  on  the  subject. 
There  was  justice  in  the  complaint  that,  "  although  Archbishop 
Laud  was  beheaded,  yet  it  could  not  be  proved  that  the  episcopa- 
lians had  persecuted  so  severely  as  these  pretended  assertors  of 
liberty  of  conscience  had  done,  who,  being  got  into  possession  of 


THE   PRICE    OF    RELIGIOUS   CONVICTIONS.  267 

power,  did  oppress  more  than  those  they  had  driven  out."^ 
George  Fox,  especially,  seems  to  have  become  acquainted  with 
most  of  the  prisons  in  the  kingdom.  The  truth  was,  that,  during 
Cromwell's  protectorate,  most  of  the  inferior  magistrates  were  con- 
tinued in  office ;  and  Cromwell  was  fearful  of  offending  the  domi- 
nant religious  sects,  by  preventing,  as  he  ought  to  have  done,  the 
injurious  proceedings  of  those  who  acted  in  his  name.  So  danger- 
ous is  it  to  commit  the  maintenance  of  religion  to  those  who  have 
other  interests  to  serve. 

These  proceedings  constitute  a  blot  upon  tlie  administration  of 
the  protectorate,  t  Many  laws,  and,  among  others,  one  for  the 
suppression  of  vagrants,  were  put  in  force  against  them.  Men 
and  women  were  imprisoned  merely  because  they  were  found  on 
the  road,  some  of  them  to  visit  their  friends,  or  to  transact  their 
necessary  business.  Others  were  whipped  and  sent  with  a  pass 
from  tything  to  tything ;  one,  a  female,  was  stopped  about  ten 
miles  from  her  home,  and  robbed  of  her  horse,  which  was  sold  to 
pay  the  expenses  of  her  incarceration.  As  this  body  held  different 
views  of  tlie  Sabbath  from  other  Christians,  they  were  often  tor- 
mented under  the  pretext  that  they  abused  it ;  and  when  found 
travelling  to  their  own  houses  of  worship,  were  frequently  pun- 
ished by  distresses,  impoundings,  fines,  imprisonment,  whippings 
and  confinement  in  the  stocks.  Sometimes,  when  preaching,  they 
were  violently  assaulted  ;  sometimes  wounded  with  stones  and 
sharp  instruments.  The  popular  feeling  against  them  was  cer- 
tainly extremely  strong ;  but  no  decisive  measures  were  adopted 
to  reform  it,  or  to  check  its  excesses.  Scarcely  a  quaker  w^as 
known  to  escape  the  violence  of  this  general  persecution. 

Severe  as  these  sufferings  were,  they  were  greatly  increased  by 
the  inhumanity  of  those  who  kept  custody  of  these  poor  victims  of 
an  established  religion.  Three  quakers,  imprisoned  in  Norwich, 
were  compelled  to  lie  on  the  floor  for  eight  weeks  in  a  most  severe 

*  Sewall's  History  of  the  Quakers,  vol.  i.,  p.  151. 

t  The  case  of  John  Lilburn  must  be  regarded  in  a  liglit  rather  political  than 
religious. 


268  THE   PRICE   OF   RELIGIOUS    CONVICTIONS. 

winter.  Others  were  kept  among  felons,  and  exposed  to  abuse 
from  their  fellow-pris=or-3rs,  who  said  that  "  if  such  were  killed 
there  would  be  no  hanging  for  it."  Others  were  treated  in  prison 
in  a  manner  not  only  injurious,  but  execrable ;  —  we  spare  the 
reader  the  offensive  details.  Women  were  kept  in  the  stocks  in  a 
way  most  indelicate  and  severe,  and  then  turned  abroad  in  the 
freezing  night.  James  Parnel,  a  young  man  of  tender  constitu- 
tion, but  a  powerful  preacher  and  vigorous  disputant,  was  impris- 
oned for  several  months,  till  he  died  under  the  severity  of  his 
treatment. 

Besides  this,  great  injuries  were  done  by  depredations  committed 
en  their  property  in  the  processes  of  distraint  for  tithes.  In  one 
case,  where  fifty-four  pounds  only  were  demanded,  the  sum  actu- 
ally seized  was  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  pounds. 

The  patience  of  these  sufii3rer8  was  such  as  to  cause  wonder  that 
it  did  not  disarm  their  enemies.  They  conducted  themselves  under 
persecution  with  a  meekness  truly  exemplary.  When  they  lifted 
up  their  public  testimony,  they  were  not  always  sparing  of  severe 
denunciation.  Indeed,  this  was  sometimes  carried  not  only  to  an 
injudicious,  but  even  to  an  unwarrantable  extent.  But,  when  they 
suffered,  there  was  usually  a  total  absence  of  passion,  or  of  revenge. 
Whitelock  relates  two  anecdotes,  which  may  be  regarded  as  strik- 
ing illustrations  of  this  most  Christian  temper.  When  some  of 
the  body  yrere  assaulted  and  ill-treated  by  the  populace,  "the 
quakers  fell  on  their  knees,  and  prayed  to  God  to  forgive  the 
people,  as  those  who  knew  not  what  they  did ;  and  remonstrated 
with  them,  so  as  to  convince  them  of  the  evil  of  their  conduct,  on 
which  they  ceased  from  their  violence,  and  began  to  reproach  each 
other  with  being  the  occasions  of  it ;  and  beat  one  another  more 
than  they  had  before  done  the  quakers."  =^ 

The  spirit  of  intolerance  which  oppressed  the  quakers  was 
stronger  among  the  presbyterian  party  of  that  day  than  any  other. 
The  independents  were  by  no  means  altogether  free.      But  they 

*  Memorials,  pp.  564,  599. 


THE    PRICE    OF    RELIGIOUS    CONVICTIONS.  269 

were  not  the  distinguished  persecutors.  The  protectorate  parlia- 
ment, dissolved  in  1654,  was  extremely  vehement  against  sectarian 
opinions.     One  of  their  resolutions  was  : 

That  the  true  reformed  protestant  Christian  religion,  as  it  is 
contained  in  the  Holy  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments, 
and  no  other,  shall  be  asserted  and  maintained  as  the  public  pro- 
fession of  these  nations." -^^^ 

In  a  subsequent  parliament  we  meet  the  following  resolutions  : 

"  Ordered,  that  it  be  referred  to  the  sub-committee  to  bring  in 
the  bill  for  supply  of  the  defects  in  the  act  for  the  observation  of 
the  Lord's  day,  to  peruse  the  several  ordinances  and  acts  for  abol- 
ishing of  the  Book  of  Common-prayer,  and  to  consider  wherein 
those  laws  are  defective,  and  to  bring  in  a  bill  to  supply  the  same ; 
and  further,  to  prevent  the  using  of  Common  Prayer,  and  to  provide 
against  the  using  of  other  superstitious  ceremonies  and  practices  in 
divine  worship. 

"  It  was  further  ordered,  that  it  be  referred  to  another  sub- 
committee to  consider  how  to  suppress  the  meetings  of  quakers, 
papists,  anti-sabbatarians,  anti-trinitarians,  and  of  the  setters  up 
of  Jewish  worship  ;  and  two  worthy  members  were  desired  to 
take  care  hereof,  and  to  bring  in  one  or  more  bills  to  remedy  the 
same."t 

To  one  case,  among  the  rest,  more  than  an  ordinary  notoriety  is 
attached.  It  is  that  of  James  Nay  lor.  This  man,  born  near 
Wakefield,  had  been  once  a  soldier  under  General  Lambert,  and 
had  been  held  in  considerable  repute  among  the  body  of  Friends. 
His  popularity  proved  too  much  for  his  understanding ;  and  when 
some  of  his  followers  addressed  blasphemous  expressions  to  him, 
he  received  them  with  a  gratification  extremely  inconsistent  with 
his  religious  professions.  "  He  was  already,"  says  Sewall,  t  "  too 
much  transported,  and  grew  still  more  exorbitant ;  for,  ^  ^ 
riding  into  Bristol  in  the  beginning  of  November,  1656,  he  was 

*  Burton's  Diary,  Introduction,  p.  112. 

t  Mercurius  Politicus.     Quoted  in  Burton's  Diary,  vol.  in.,  p.  403. 

fHist.  Quakers,  vol.  i.,  pp.  236,  et  seq. 

23* 


270  THE    PRICE   OF    llELIGIOUS    CONVICTIONS. 

accompanied  by  several  persons  ;  and  passing  through  the  suburbs 
of  Bristol,  one  Thomas  Woodcock  went  bareheaded  before  him  ; 
one  of  the  women  led  his  horse ; .  Dorcas,  Martha  and  Hannah, 
spread  their  scarfs  and  handkerchiefs  before  him,  and  the  company 
sung,  '  Holy,  holy,  holy  is  the  Lord  God  of  Hosts,'  &c.  ^  ^ 
Tlius  these  mad  people  sung,  whilst  they  were  walking  through 
the  mire  and  dirt,  till  they  came  to  Bristol,  where  they  were 
examined  by  the  magistrates  and  committed  to  prison ;  and  not 
long  ifter  he  was  carried  to  London,  to  be  examined  by  the  par- 
liament." 

The  case  was  sufficiently  lamentable  and  disgraceful,  and  his 
party  believed  him,  not  improbably,  to  be  "clouded  in  his  under- 
standing," and  hastened  to  avow,  as  they  have  ever  since  done, 
their  entire  repudiation  of  his  extravagances.  "  His  sorrowful 
fall,"  says  their  historian,  "ought  to  stand  as  a  warning,  even  to 
those  that  are  endued  with  great  gifts,  that  they  do  not  presume 
to  be  exalted,  lest  they  also  fall ;  but  endeavor  to  continue  in  true 
humility,  in  which  alone  a  Christian  can  be  kept  safe." 

Naylor's  conduct  came  before  parliament,  Dec.  3,  1656.  He 
was  accused  of  having  "  assumed  the  gesture,  words,  names  and 
attributes,  of  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ."  The  case  excited  a  deep 
sensation  in  the  house.  "Naylor  is,  in  fact,"  says  Carlyle,  "almost 
all  that  survives  with  one,  from  Burton,  as  the  sum  of  what  this 
parliament  did."  The  first  speaker,  Major-general  Skippon,  said, 
breaking  the  silence  which  had  followed  the  report,  "  I  do  not 
marvel  at  this  silence.  Every  man  is  astonished  to  hear  this 
report.  I  am  glad  it  is  come  hither  ;  I  hope  it  will  mind  you  to 
look  about  you  now.  It  is  now  come  to  your  doors,  to  know  how 
you  that  bear  witness  of  Christ  do  relish  such  things.  God's 
displeasure  will  be  upon  you,  if  you  do  not  lay  out  your  special 
endeavors  in  the  things  of  God  ;  not  to  postpone  them.  You  are 
cumbered  about  many  things ;  but  I  may  truly  say  this,  unum 
necessarium.^^  "  I  am  as  tender  as  any  man  to  lay  impositions 
upon  men's  consciences,  but  in  these  horrid  things.  I  have  always 
been  against  laws  for  matters  ex  post  facto :  but  in  this  I  am  free 


THE    PRICE   OF    RELIGIOUS    CONVICTIONS.  271 

to  look  back,  for  it  is  a  special  emergency."  There  were  not 
wanting  those  in  the  house  who,  though  they  abominated  the  blas- 
phemy, desired  ftiirness  to  be  shown  to  the  criminal.  Captain 
Baynes  said,  "  However  others  look  upon  Naylor,  I  look  upon  him 
as  a  man,  an  Englishman."  Naylor  was,  at  length,  brought  to 
the  bar  of  the  house.  He  was  examined,  and,  being  removed,  the 
debate  proceeded.  Skippon  pressed  for  punishment  with  extreme 
ui'gency :  "  These  quakers,  ranters,  levellers,  Socinians  and  all 
sorts,  bolster  themselves  under  thirty-seven  and  thirty-eight  of 
government,  =^  which,  at  one  breath,  repeals  all  the  acts  and  ordi- 
nances against  them.  I  heard  the  supreme  magistrate  say,  *  It 
was  never  his  intention  to  indulge  such  things.'  Yet  we  see  the 
issue  of  this  liberty  of  conscience.  It  sits  hard  upon  my  conscience ; 
and  I  choose  rather  to  venture  my  discretion  than  betray  con- 
science by  my  silence.  If  this  be  liberty,  God  deliver  me  from 
such  liberty  ! "  Some  difficulties  occurred  respecting  the  propriety 
of  the  phrase,  horrid  blasphemy.  The  lord-president  said  that 
it  was  a  matter  very  hard  for  a  parliament  to  define,  and  that  no 
definition  of  it  could  be  given  which  would  not  include  many  others 
besides  Naylor.  What  would  become  of  the  familists,  what  of 
Arians,  what  of  Arminians  ?  "  By  this  rule,"  replied  Skippon, 
"  none  shall  meddle  at  all  in  matters  of  religion."  Colonel  Syden- 
ham said,  "  If  some  of  those  parliaments  were  sitting  in  our  places, 
I  believe  they  would  condemn  most  of  us  for  heretics."  In  the  end 
it  was  resolved,  "  that  James  Naylor  is  guilty  of  horrid  blasphemy." 
Many  were  for  condemning  him  to  death;  some,  —  amongst  others 
Thurloe,  the  secretary  of  state,  —  for  punishing  him  as  a  rogue. 
The  debate  grew  excited.  One  said,  "The  quakers  are  not  only 
numerous,  but  dangerous ;  and  the  sooner  we  shall  put  a  stop,  the 
more  glory  we  shall  do  to  God,  and  safety  to  this  commonwt^alth." 

*  These  parts  of  the  "  Instrument  of  government "  provided  "  that  such  aa 
profess  faith  in  God  by  Jesus  Christ  (though  differing  in  judgment  from  the 
doctrine,  worship  or  discljiline,  publicly  held  forth),  shall  not  be  restrained 
from,  but  protected  in,  the  profession  of  the  faith  and  exercise  of  their  reli- 
gion," <fec.,  "provided  this  liberty  be  not  extended  to  popery  nor  prelacy." 


272  THE   PRICE   OF    RELIGIOUS   CONVICTIONS. 

Some  contended  that  the  law  for  punishing  blasphemers  was  bind- 
ing only  on  the  Jewish  nation.  The  nature  of  the  punishment  to 
be  inflicted,  death  being  set  aside,  was  much  discussed.  The 
debate  turned  on  the  questions  of  slitting  the  tongue,  or  boring  it ; 
of  cutting  off  his  hair ;  of  whipping ;  of  sending  him  to  Bristol, 
the  Isle  of  Scilly,  Jamaica,  the  Isle  of  Dogs,  the  Marshalsea.  At 
length  the  prisoner  was  called  up  to  receive  his  sentence.  It  was 
one  of  terrible  severity : 

"  That  James  Naylor  be  set  in  the  pillory,  with  his  head  in  the 
pillory,  in  the  New  Palace,  Westminster,  during  the  space  of  two 
hours,  on  Thursday  next ;  and  be  whipped  by  the  hangman  through 
the  streets  of  Westminster  to  the  Old  Exchange,  London ;  and 
there  likewise  to  be  set  upon  the  pillory,  with  his  head  in  the  pil- 
lory, for  the  space  of  two  hours,  between  the  hours  of  eleven  and 
one  on  Saturday  next,  in  each  of  the  said  places,  wearing  a  paper 
containing  an  inscription  of  his  crimes  ;  and  that,  at  the  Old  Ex- 
change, his  tongue  should  be  bored  through  with  a  hot  iron,  and 
that  he  be  there  also  stigmatized  in  the  forehead  with  the  letter 
B ;  and  that  he  afterwards  be  sent  to  Bristol,  and  conveyed  into 
and  through  the  said  city,  on  a  horse,  bare-ridged,  with  his  face 
back,  and  there  also  publicly  whipped,  the  next  market-day  after  he 
comes  thither  ;  and  that  from  thence  he  be  committed  to  prison  in 
Bridewell,  London,  and  there  restrained  from  the  society  of  all 
people,  and  kept  to  hard  labor,  till  he  be  released  by  the  parlia- 
ment ;  and  during  that  time  be  debarred  of  the  use  of  pen,  ink 
and  paper,  and  have  no  relief  but  what  he  earns  by  his  daily 
labor." 

The  sentence  was  executed  accordingly.  "  The  18th  of  Decem- 
ber, J.  Naylor  suffered  part  of  it ;  and,  after  having  stood  two 
full  hours  with  his  head  in  the  pillory,  was  stripped,  and  whipped 
at  a  cart's  tail,  from  Palace-yard  to  the  Old  Exchange,  and 
received  three  hundred  and  ten  stripes;  and  the  executioner 
would  have  given  him  one  more  (as  he  confessed  to  the  sheriff), 
there  being  three  hundred  and  eleven  kennels ;  but  his  foot  slip- 
ping, the  stroke  fell  upon  his  own  hand,  which  hurt  him  much. 


THE   PRICE   OP   RELIGIOUS   CONVICTIONS.  273 

All  this  Naylor  bore  with  so  much  patience  and  quietness,  that  it 
astonished  many  of  the  beholders,  though  his  body  was  in  a  most 
pitiful  condition.  He  was  also  much  hurt  with  horses  treading 
on  his  feet,  whereon  the  print  of  the  nails  was  seen.  Rebecca 
Travers,  a  grave  person,  who  washed  his  wounds,  in  a  certificate 
which  was  presented  to  the  parliament,  and  afterwards  printed, 
says,  '  There  was  not  the  space  of  a  man's  nail  free  from  stripes 
and  blood,  from  his  shoulders  near  to  his  waist ;  his  right  arm 
sorely  striped,  his  hands  much  cut  with  cords,  that  they  bled  and 
were  swelled ;  the  blood  and  wounds  of  his  back  did  very  little 
appear  at  first  sight,  by  reason  of  the  abundance  of  dirt  that  cov- 
ered them,  till  it  was  washed  off.'  "  ^  When  the  time  arrived  for 
the  second  part  of  Naylor's  punishment,  he  was  in  a  state  so 
exhausted  that  it  was  necessarily  deferred ;  and  a  petition  was  pre- 
sented to  the  protector  in  this  interval,  signed  by  many  who  were 
not  quakers,  for  clemency  to  be  showed  to  the  sufierer,  —  "  leav- 
ing him  to  the  Lord,  and  to  such  gospel  remedies  as  he  hath  sancti- 
fied." It  was  a  general  impression  on  many  minds  that  Naylor 
had  been  rather  guilty  of  inconsiderateness  and  folly,  than  actual 
guilt.  But  the  interposition  was  in  vain.  The  commons  sent 
several  ministers,  among  whom  were  Caryl,  Man  ton,  Nye  and 
Reynolds,  to  speak  with  the  prisoner;  and  they,  according  to 
Naylor's  account,  were  unable  to  prove  that  he  had  been  guilty 
of  blasphemy  at  all,  and  after  some  rebuffs,  left  him  as  they  came. 
The  rest  of  Naylor's  sentence  was  afterwards  executed,  t     This 

*  "  A  merchant's  wife  told  me  there  was  no  skin  left  between  his  shoulders 
and  his  hips."     Col.  Holland,  in  parliament,  1G56. 

f  "  This  day  B.  and  I  went  to  see  Naylor's  tongue  bored  through,  and  him 
marked  in  the  forehead.  He  put  out  his  tongue  very  willingly  (1),  but 
shrinked  a  little  when  the  iron  came  on  his  forehead.  He  was  pale  when  he 
came  out  of  the  pillory,  but  high-colored  after  tongue-boring.  He  was  bound 
with  a  cord  by  both  arms  to  the  pillory.  Kich,  the  mad  merchant,  sat  bare  at 
Naylor's  feet  all  the  time.  Sometimes  he  sang  and  cried,  and  stroked  his  hair 
and  face,  and  kissed  his  hand,  and  stroke  the  fire  out  of  his  forehead.  Nay- 
lor embraced  his  executioner,  and  behaved  himself  very  handsomely  and 
patiently."  —  Burton's  Diary,  vol.  i.,  p.  226. 


274  THE    PRICE    OP    RELIGIOUS    CONVICTIONS. 

poor  wretch,  who  was  probably  under  the  influence  of  a  temporary 
insanity,  made,  subsequently,  a  public  recantation  of  his  errors. 
These  proceedings  seem  not  to  have  been  very  acceptable  to  Crom- 
well. Whilst  they  were  yet  pending,  he  sent  a  message  to  the 
House,  desiring  to  know  "  the  grounds  and  reasons  how  you  pro- 
ceeded therein  without  our  consent."  The  interposition  was  use- 
less ;  the  parliament  would  have  its  way.  Naylor,  after  some 
time,  recovered  his  liberty,  and  spent  the  rest  of  his  dsijs  blame- 
lessly and  usefully.  He  died  in  Huntingdonshire,  in  the  year 
1660. 

The  interviews  which  are  related  to  have  taken  place  between 
George  Fox  and  Cromwell  himself  would  lead  us  to  the  conclusion 
that  he  was  favorable  to  the  religious  liberty  which  the  quakers 
claimed.  On  one  occasion,  Oliver  said, "  Come  again  to  my  house  ! 
If  thou  and  I  were  but  an  hour  of  the  day  together,  we  should 
be  nearer  one  to  the  other.  I  wish  no  more  harm  to  thee  than  I 
do  to  ray  own  soul !  "  ^  On  a  second  occasion,  after  some  grave 
conversation,  the  protector  said  "  to  his  wife  and  other  company, 
that  he  had  never  parted  so  with  the  quakers  before."  On  the 
third  and  last  interview,  he  went  to  the  protector  at  Hampton 
Court  "  to  speak  with  him  about  the  sufferings  of  his  friends." 
He  here  met  him  riding  into  the  park,  and  says  that  he  felt  "  a 
waft  of  death  going  forth  against  him,  and  when  he  came  near 
him  he  looked  like  a  dead  man."  Oliver  invited  him  to  his 
house;  but  when  he  came,  Oliver  was  already  on  his  bed  of 
death. 

The  reader  by  this  time  will  have  almost  forgotten  that  he  is 
yet  standing  within  view  of  Lancaster  Castle.  In  one  of  his  per- 
egrinations, in  the  year  1660,  Fox  had  come  to  Swarthmore,  near 
Lancaster,  immediately  after  the  restoration  of  Charles  11.  He 
was  here  apprehended  at  the  house  of  a  widow  named  Fell,  and 
led  away  to  Ulverston.  Here  he  tells  us  he  was  kept  a  night  at 
the  house  of  the  constable,  with  fifteen  or  sixteen  men  set  to  watch 
him,  in  some  fear  lest  he  might  make  his  escape  up  the  chimney. 

*  Fox's  Journal,  vol.  r.,  p.  265. 


THE   PRICE    OF    RELIGIOUS    CONVICTIONS.  275 

Next  morning  he  was  carried  to  Lancaster,  seated  on  a  horse, 
behind  the  saddle,  with  nothing  by  which  to  support  himself; 
whilst  the  attendants  urged  on  the  horse  by  sudden  strokes,  so 
that  the  animal  kicked  and  galloped,  and  threw  his  rider.  Here 
he  was  put  in  prison.  In  vain  did  he  ask  for  a  copy  of  the  mit- 
timus under  the  authority  of  which  he  was  imprisoned.  He 
learned,  however,  that  his  accusation  was  that  he  was  suspected  of 
being  "  a  common  disturber  of  the  peace  of  the  nation."  The 
justice  before  whom  he  was  brought,  and  who  had  granted  the 
warrant  against  him,  was  named  Porter;  he  had  been  heretofore  a 
zealous  defender  of  the  cause  of  the  parliament  against  the  king. 

The  widow  in  whose  house  Fox  had  been  apprehended,  with 
another  female  friend,  resolved  to  go  to  London  personally,  to 
petition  the  king  in  favor  of  the  imprisoned  man.  Porter  de- 
clared that  he  would  go  also,  till  he  was  reminded  that  the  part 
he  had  taken  in  the  recent  civil  war  would  be  likely  to  gain  him 
small  favor  at  court.  The  women,  therefore,  went  alone,  and 
were  received  by  Charles  with  the  grace  and  courtesy  which  are 
not  seldom  associated  with  the  absence  of  valuable  principle. 
They  asked  the  king  to  hear  the  cause  himself.  They  were  fed 
by  promises,  pending  the  slow  execution  of  which  Fox  was  kept 
in  prison.  At  length  the  sheriff  said  he  would  release  him,  if  he 
would  enter  into  recognizances  to  pay  the  charges  incurred  by  his 
incarceration  and  his  removal  to  London.  This,  however.  Fox 
refused  to  do.  The  authorities  then  considered  how  to  convey 
him  to  town.  At  first,  they  proposed  to  send  a  few  horsemen 
as  guard  over  him.  Fox  told  them  that,  if  all  were  true  which 
had  been  laid  to  his  charge,  a  troop  or  two  would  not  be  more  than 
was  sufficient  for  his  security.  At  length  they  determined  that 
he  should  go  up,  guarded  only  by  the  jailer  and  some  bailiffs. 
But  even  this  they  found  would  be  an  expensive  proceeding ;  there 
were  no  railroads  in  those  days.  They  asked  Fox  himself  to  give 
bail  for  his  appearance  in  London,  which  he  refused  to  do.  In  the 
end,  they  adopted  a  proceeding  so  extraordinary  as  to  be,  probably, 
without  parallel  in   the  whole  annals  of   criminal  jurisdiction. 


273  THE    PKICE   OF   RELIGIOUS    CONVICTIONS. 

They  sent  him  to  London,  on  his  pledging  his  word  that,  "  if  God 
did  permit,"  he  should  appear  before  the  judges  on  a  certain  day. 
Fox  gave  the  word,  and  honorably  kept  it.  He  appeared,  and 
was  told  to  come  again  on  another  day.  At  his  second  appear- 
ance, the  indictment  set  forth  that  he  and  his  friends  were  embroil- 
ing the  nation  in  blood.  Fox  told  them  that  he  was  the  man 
against  whom  such  a  charge  was  laid,  and  related  to  them  the 
circumstances  under  which  he  had  come  up  to  appear  before  them. 
Seeing  his  hat  on  his  head,  they  asked  him  "  why  he  stood  before 
them  with  his  head  covered."  He  told  them  that  he  did  not  retain 
it  out  of  any  contempt  to  them.  They  commanded  it  to  be 
removed ;  and,  calling  for  the  marshal  of  the  King's  Bench,  they 
commanded  him  to  secure  Fox.  The  marshal  declared  that  the 
house  was  quite  full.  Judge  Foster  then  said,  "Will  you  appear 
to-morrow  about  ten  o'clock  at  the  King's  Bench  bar,  in  Westmins- 
ter Hall  ?  "  "  Yes,"  said  he,  "  if  the  Lord  give  me  strength." 
Upon  which  the  judge  said  to  his  co-assessor,  "  If  he  says  yes,  and 
promises  it,  ye  may  take  his  word." 

On  the  next  day.  Fox  appeared  accordingly  once  more.  The 
charge  of  bloody  practices  was  repeated.  "  I  am  the  man,"  said 
Fox,  "  against  whom  this  charge  is  laid ;  but  I  am  as  innocent  as  a 
child  concerning  the  charge,  and  have  never  learned  any  war  pos- 
tures. Do  you  think  that,  if  I  and  my  friends  had  been  such  men 
as  this  charge  declares,  I  would  have  brought  it  up  agaihst  my- 
self, or  that  I  should  have  been  suffered  to  come  up  with  only  one 
or  two  of  my  friends  with  me  ?  "  The  result  was,  that  for  this 
time  the  courageous  martyr  was  set  at  liberty  by  royal  warrant. 

But  this  was  not  the  only  imprisonment  undergone  by  Fox  in 
Lancaster  jail.  In  the  year  1663  he  was  seized  again,  and  in  the 
same  house  as  before.  He  was  brought  at  this  time  before  several 
justices,  and  underwent  a  long  examination.  "  You  deny  God," 
said  Middleton,  one  of  the  number,  "  and  the  church,  and  the 
faith."  "  Nay,"  replied  George  Fox,  "  I  own  God,  and  the  true 
church,  and  the  true  faith ;  but,"  said  he  (having  understood  Mid- 
dleton to  be  a  papist), "  what  church  dost  thou  own  ? "     The  other, 


THE    PRICE   OF    RELIGIOUS    CONVICTIONS.  277 

instead  of  answering  this  question,  said,  "  You  are  a  rebel  and  a 
tjaitor."  Fox  asked  him  whom  he  spoke  to,  or  whom  he  called 
rebel.  The  other,  having  been  silent  a  while,  said,  at  last,  "  I 
spoke  to  you."  Fox,  then  striking  his  hand  on  the  table,  told  him, 
"  I  have  suffered  more  than  twenty  such  as  thou,  or  any  that  are 
here ;  for  I  have  been  cast  into  Derby  dungeon  for  six  months 
together,  and  have  suffered  much,  because  I  would  not  take  up  arms 
against  the  king  before  Worcester  fight ;  and  I  have  been  sent  up 
prisoner  out  of  my  own  country,  by  Colonel  Hacker,  to  0.  Crom- 
well, as  a  plotter  to  bring  in  King  Charles.  Ye  talk  of  the  king, 
a  company  of  you ;  but  where  were  ye  in  Oliver's  days,  and  what 
did  ye  do  then  for  the  king  ?  But  I  have  more  love  to  him,  for 
his  eternal  good  and  welfare,  than  any  of  you  have." 

After  some  more  debate  of  this  kind,  Middleton  said,  "  Bring 
the  book,  and  put  the  oath  of  allegiance  and  supremacy  to  him !  " 
But  Fox,  knowing  him  to  be  a  papist,  asked  him  whether  he,  who 
was  a  swearer,  had  taken  the  oath  of  supremacy ;  for  this  oath, 
tending  to  reject  the  pope's  power  in  England,  was  a  kind  of  test 
to  try  people  whether  they  were  papists,  or  no.  "  But  as  for  us," 
said  Fox,  "  we  cannot  swear  at  all,  because  Christ  and  his  apostles 
have  forbidden  it !  " 

"  Now,  some  of  those  that  sat  there,  seeing  Middleton  thus 
pinched,  would  not  have  had  the  oath  put  to  G.  Fox ;  but  others 
would,  because  this  was  their  last  snare,  and  they  had  no  other 
way  to  get  him  into  prison.  So  they  tendered  Fox  the  oath,  and 
he  refusing  to  take  it,  they  consulted  together  about  sending  him 
to  jail ;  but  all  not  agreeing,  he  was  only  engaged  to  appear  at  the 
sessions ;  and  so  for  that  time  they  dismissed  him."  ^ 

Fox  appeared  at  the  Lancaster  sessions,  and  was  accused  of 
being  concerned  in  the  popish  plot.  As,  however,  it  was  impossi- 
ble to  substantiate  this  charge,  he  was  required  to  take  the  oaths ; 
which,  now  as  always,  he  refused  to  do.  He  was,  therefore,  com- 
mitted to  prison. 

♦  Sewell*s  Hist,  of  Quakers,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  63,  64. 

24 


278  THE   PRICE   OF    RELIGIOUS   CONVICTIONS. 

The  room  in  which  Fox  was  incarcerated  is  still  visible.  He 
who  penetrates  within  the  enclosure  of  the  castle  will  wonder  at 
the  kind  of  life  which  kings  and  princes  must  have  led  in  the  days 
of  its  erection.  Here  are  the  same  rooms  of  John  of  Gaunt, 
visited  sometimes  by  his  father,  Edward  the  Tliird,  —  small, 
stately,  strong  apartments,  having  few  windows  in  the  exterior, 
and  those  narrowed  to  the  smallest  possible  dimensions,  —  well 
fitted  to  serve  as  the  prisons  they  have  since  become.  Fox's  room 
was  in  the  donjon,  and  the  window  of  what  was  his  residence  dur- 
ing many  long,  dreary  months,  is  conspicuous  over  the  greater  part 
of  the  ancient  town.  It  was  evidently  at  one  period  a  room  of 
considerable  size,  but  in  Fox's  day  it  was  old  and  ruinous.  He 
could  scarcely  walk  across  his  apartment,  because  of  the  dilapidated 
state  of  the  floor.  The  smoke  which  came  from  the  other  prisons 
was  so  dense,  that  sometimes  a  burning  candle  was  scarcely  visible, 
and  he  was  in  imminent  danger  of  being  choked ;  and  the  turnkey 
was  with  difficulty  persuaded  to  unlock  one  of  the  upper  doors,  in 
order  to  let  out  the  smoke.  In  wet  weather  it  rained  upon  his 
bed.  The  inconveniences  of  his  imprisonment  affected  Fox  to  such 
a  degree,  during  a  cold  and  prolonged  winter,  that  his  body  became 
swollen,  and  his  limbs  benumbed.  When  he  was  brought  up  at 
the  March  assizes,  1665,  he  was  so  weak  that  he  could  scarcely 
stand  or  move.  Although,  upon  many  occasions  during  this 
incarceration.  Fox  demonstrated  the  absurdity  of  the  charge 
brought  against  him,  and  even  showed  that  the  indictment  on 
which  he  was  accused  was  bad,  he  was  readily  silenced  and  sent 
back  to  prison,  on  his  refusal  to  take  the  oaths  of  allegiance  and 
supremacy.  At  length,  he  was  conveyed  on  horseback  to  York, 
and  thence  to  Scarborough  Castle,  where  he  underwent  even 
greater  hardships. 

In  1674  Fox  was  again  in  prison,  under  an  accusation  of  prcB' 
munire,  passed  against  him  at  Worcester  sessions,  and  clandes- 
tinely recorded  in  his  absence.  Here  he  was  seized  with  a  violen- 
sickness,  which  endangered  his  life.  His  wife  came  from  the  north 
to  attend  on  him.     She  afterwards  visited  London,  and  solicited 


THE   PEICE   OF    RELIGIOUS   CONVICTIONS. 


279 


from  jhe  king  his  discharge.  Charles  granted  a  pardon,  which 
Fox,  aowever,  refused  to  accept,  saying  "  he  had  rather  lie  in  a 
prison  all  his  days,  than  come  out  in  any  way  dishonorable  to  the 
truth  he  made  profession  of."  He  demanded  a  fair  trial  upon 
habeas  corpus,  and  succeeded  in  quashing  the  indictment.  When, 
afterwards,  an  effort  was  made  to  induce  Sir  M.  Hale  to  put  the 
oaths  to  him,  on  the  plea  that  he  was  a  dangerous  man  to  be  at 
liberty,  that  upright  judge  refused,  saying  that  he  had,  indeed, 
heard  some  unfavorable  reports  regarding  him,  but  he  had  also 
heard  more  good  reports  respecting  him.  In  the  course  of  a  sub- 
sequent trial  of  this  martyr,  respecting  tithes  levied  on  his  and  his 
wife's  estate,  a  document  was  produced  under  his  hand  and  seal, 
constituting  an  engagement  that  he  would  never  touch  his  wife's 
property,  —  an  instance  of  disinterestedness  which  excited  the 
applause  of  the  judges.     The  suit  was,  in  great  part,  baffled. 

Nor  were  Fox's  friends  in  this  neighborhood  allowed  to  escape. 
Many  of  his  followers,  and  amongst  them  Margaret  Fell,  at  whose 

house  he  had  been  appre- 
hended, were  also  confined 
in  the  castle,  where  an 
apartment  exists  still  call- 
ed the  quakers'  room,  be- 
cause it  was  the  scene  of 
the  sufferings  of  many  of 
these  oppressed  and  unre- 
sisting Christians.  It  is 
not  possible  for  us  to  give 
in  this  chapter  a  compre- 
hensive view  of  the  vari- 
ous trials  and  inflictions 
undergone  by  this  perse- 
cuted body.  It  may  be 
sufficient  to  remark,  that 
CARLISLE  CASTLE.  Carlislo  Castlo,  as  well  as 

Lancaster  Castle,  was  a  celebrated  scene  of  quaker  imprisonments. 


280  THE   PRICE   OF   RELIGIOUS   CONVICTIONS. 

Here,  where  the  guilty  and  unfortunate  Mary  Queen  of  Scots 
was  confined,  and  where,  at  a  subsequent  period,  the  heads 
and  disfigured  limbs  of  those  who  had  espoused  the  cause  of  the 
young  pretender  were  set  up  in  ghastly  array,  —  within  the  walls, 
which  still  bear  the  rude  sculptures  made  by  the  hands  of  prison- 
ers during  the  wars  of  the  Hoses,  —  multitudes  of  the  early 
quakers  were  confined. 

Their  patience,  magnanimity,  and  quiet  endurance  of  untold  hard- 
ships, remain  as  lessons  of  Christian  principles  ;  whilst  the  history 
of  their  hardships,  and  the  survival  of  their  tenets  among  a  body 
preeminently  devoted  to  the  cause  of  benevolence  and  the  quiet 
assertion  of  religious  liberty,  demonstrates  how  ineffective  is  the 
civil  arm  before  the  might  of  religious  earnestness. 

No  proceedings  at  this  period  excited  greater  attention,  or  led 
to  more  important  consequences,  than  the  trial  of  William  Penn 
and  William  Mead,  at  the  Old  Bailey,  in  the  month  of  September, 
1670.  The  charge  against  them  was,  "that  William  Penn  and 
William  Mead,  with  divers  other  persons  to  the  number  of  three 
hundred,  at  Grace-church-street  in  London,  on  the  loth  August, 
with  force  and  arms  had  tumultuously  assembled  together ;  and 
that  William  Penn,  by  agreement  between  him  and  William  Mead, 
had  preached  in  the  public  street,  whereby  was  caused  a  great 
concourse  and  tumult  of  the  people,"  &c.  The  facts  of  the  case 
were  these :  A  guard  had  been  placed  to  hinder  the  Friends  from 
approaching  their  meeting-house,  whereby  a  concourse  was  occa- 
sioned in  the  street ;  but  no  arms  were  employed,  as  it  was  con- 
trary to  the  principles  of  the  quakers  that  they  should  be.  Before 
the  commencement  of  the  trial,  the  prisoners  were  kept  five  hours 
waiting  whilst  other  criminal  cases  were  disposed  of  When  the 
indictment  against  Penn  and  Mead  was  read,  the  attendants  of  the 
court  removed  the  prisoners'  hats.  The  lord  mayor  ordered  them 
to  be  replaced ;  and  when  this  was  done,  the  recorder,  Sir  John 
Howel,  complained  that  they  had  not  showed  due  respect  to  the 
court  by  removing  their  hats,  and  fined  them  in  a  sum  of  forty 
marks  each  for  the  neglect.    As  the  trial  proceeded,  Penn  declared 


THE    PRICE   OF    RELIGIOUS   CONVICTIONS.  281 

that  he  held  it  to  be  an  indispensable  duty  to  meet  for  purposes  of 
public  worship,  and  desired  to  know  upon  what  law  he  was  proso- 
cuted.  The  recorder  replied,  "  Upon  the  common  law."  Penn 
demanded  to  be  shown  the  law,  and  refused  to  plead  to  an  indict- 
ment that  had  no  legal  foundation. 

Recorder.  You  are  an  impertinent  fellow.  Will  you  teach 
the  court  what  law  is  ?  It 's  lex  non  scriptaj  that  which  many 
have  studied  thirty  or  forty  years  to  know  ;  and  would  you  have 
me  to  tell  you  in  a  moment  ? 

Penii.  Certainly,  if  the  common  law  be  so  hard  to  be  under- 
stood, it 's  far  from  being  very  common ;  but  if  the  Lord  Coke  in 
his  Institutes  be  of  any  consideration,  he  tells  us  that  common  law 
is  common  right,  and  that  common  right  is  the  great  charter 
privileges  confirmed  by  9  Hen.  III.;  25  Edw.  I.;  2  Edw.  III.; 
Coke's  Institutes  2. 

Rec.  Sir,  you  are  a  troublesome  fellow,  and  it  is  not  for  the 
honor  of  the  court  to  suflfer  you  to  go  on. 

Penn.  I  have  asked  but  one  question,  and  you  have  not 
answered  me,  though  the  rights  and  privileges  of  every  English- 
man be  concerned  in  it. 

Rec.  If  I  should  suffer  you  to  ask  questions  till  to-morrow 
morning,  you  will  never  be  the  wiser. 

Penn.   That  is  according  as  the  answers  are  ! 

Rec.    Sir,  we  must  not  stand  to  hear  you  talk  all  night. 

Penn.  I  desire  no  affront  to  the  court,  but  to  be  heard  in  my 
just  pleaj  and  I  must  plainly  tell  you,  that  if  you  will  deny  me 
oyer  of  that  law  which  you  suggest  I  have  broken,  you  do  at  once 
deny  me  an  acknowledged  right,  and  evidence  to  the  whole  world 
your  resolution  to  sacrifice  the  privileges  of  Englishmen  to  your 
sinister  and  arbitrary  designs. 

Rec.  Take  him  away !  My  lord,  if  you  take  not  some  course 
with  this  pestilent  fellow,  to  stop  his  mouth,  we  shall  not  be  able 
to  do  anything  to-night. 

Mayor.  Take  him  away,  —  take  him  away,  —  turn  him  into 
the  bail  dock ! 

i24* 


282  THE    PRICE   OF   RELIGIOUS   CONVICTIONS. 

Pcnn.  These  are  but  so  many  vain  exclamations.  Is  this 
justice  or  true  judgment  ?  Must  I,  therefore,  be  taken  away, 
because  I  plead  for  the  fundamental  laws  of  England  ?  However, 
this  I  leave  on  your  consciences  who  are  of  the  jury,  —  and  ray 
sole  judges,  —  that  if  those  ancient  fundamental  laws  which  relate 
to  liberty  and  property,  —  and  are  not  limited  to  particular  per- 
suasions in  matters  of  religion,  —  must  not  be  indispensably  main- 
tained and  observed,  who  can  say  he  hath  right  to  the  coat  on  his 
back  ?  Certainly,  our  liberties  are  openly  to  be  invaded,  our  wives 
to  be  ravished,  our  children  slaved,  our  families  ruined,  and  our 
estates  led  away  in  triumph  by  every  sturdy  beggar  and  malicious 
informer,  as  their  trophies,  but  our  pretended  forfeits  for  conscience' 
sake ;  the  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth  will  be  judge  between  us  in 
this  matter ! 

Rec.   Be  silent,  there  ! 

Penn.  I  am  not  to  be  silent  in  a  cause  wherein  I  am  so  much 
concerned ;  and  not  only  myself,  but  many  ten  thousand  families 
besides. 

It  was  now  Mead's  turn,  who  defended  himself  no  less  manfully. 
He  defined  a  riot,  and  showed  that  his  conduct  had  borne  no  rela- 
tion to  that  offence.  He  was  interrupted  by  the  recorder,  who, 
contemptuously  pulling  off  his  hat,  said,  "  I  thank  you,  sir,  that 
you  will  tell  me  what  the  law  is.  You  deserve  to  have  your 
tongue  cut  out."     He,  too,  was  ordered  to  the  bail  dock. 

The  judge  then  proceeded  to  charge  the  jury.  As  Penn,  how- 
ever, was  not  out  of  hearing,  he  protested,  with  raised  voice,  against 
to  illegal  an  act  as  that  of  charging  the  jury  in  the  absence  of  the 
prisoner.  The  recorder,  in  a  state  of  violent  excitement,  cried  out, 
"  Take  him  away  into  the  hole  !  To  hear  them  talk  thus  does  not 
become  the  honor  of  the  court." 

After  an  hour  and  a  half,  eight  of  the  jury  came  down,  —  the 
tsourt  sent  an  officer  for  the  other  four.  After  much  menacing 
language,  they  were  sent  back  to  agree  upon  a  verdict.  At  length 
they  returned. 

Clerk.   Look  upon  the  prisoners  at  the  bar.     How  say  you  ? 


THE    PRICE   OF    RELIGIOUS    CONVICTIONS.  283 

Is  William  Penn  guilty  of  the  matter  whereof  he  stands  indicted, 
in  Matter  and  form,  or  not  guilty  ? 

Foreman.    Guilty  of  speaking  in  Gracious-street. 

Court.    Is  that  all  ? 

Foreman.   That  is  all  I  have  in  commission. 

Fee.    You  had  as  good  say  nothing. 

Mayor.  Was  it  not  an  unlawful  assembly  ?  You  mean  he  was 
speaking  to  a  tumult  of  people  there  ? 

Foreman.    My  lord,  this  was  all  I  had  in  commission. 

After  much  scurrilous  browbeating,  the  jury  requested  to  give  in 
their  verdict  in  writing,  which  they  did,  finding  still  Penn  guilty 
of  speaking,  and  acquitting  Mead.  Still  the  court  threatened  and 
reviled.  But  Penn  boldly  required  the  clerk  to  record  it,  and 
turning  to  the  jury  said,  "  You  are  Englishmen ;  mind  your 
privilege ;  give  not  away  your  right." 

Several  persons  were  sworn  to  keep  the  jury  all  night  in  seclu- 
sion, without  meat,  drink,  fire,  or  any  ordinary  conveniences.  But 
again  they  repeated  their  verdict.  "  I  knew,"  said  one  on  the 
bench,  "  that  Mr.  Bushell  would  not  yield." 

Bush.    I  have  done  according  to  my  conscience. 

Mayor.   That  conscience  of  yours  would  cut  my  throat. 

Bush.   No,  my  lord  ;  it  never  shall. 

Mayor.    But  I  will  cut  yours  so  soon  as  I  can. 

After  more  threatening  and  bullying,  silence  was  proclaimed, 
and  the  question  deliberately  put  to  the  jury  once  more. 

Clerk.  What  say  you  ?  Is  William  Penn  guilty  of  the  matter 
whereof  he  stands  indicted,  in  matter  and  form  aforesaid,  or  not 
guilty  ? 

Foreman.    Guilty  of  speaking  in  Grace-church-street. 

Once  more  the  court  bullied  ;  once  more  Penn  remonstrated,  on 
behalf  of  his  jury. 

Rec.    My  lord,  you  must  take  a  course  with  that  same  fellow. 

Mayor.  Stop  his  mouth !  Jailer,  bring  fetters,  and  stake  him 
to  the  ground. 

Penn.   Do  your  pleasure.     I  matter  not  your  fetters. 


284  THE   PRICE   OF    RELIGIOUS    CONVICTIONS. 

Rec.  Till  now  I  never  understood  the  policy  and  prudence  of 
the  Spaniards  in  suffering  the  inquisition  among  them  ;  and  cer- 
tainly it  never  will  be  well  with  us  till  something  like  unto  the 
Spanish  inquisition  be  in  England.  After  more  objurgation,  the 
recorder  said,  "  Draw  up  another  verdict,  that  they  may  bring  it 
in  special."  The  clerk  said  that  he  knew  not  how  to  do  it.  The 
recorder  declared  he  would  have  another  verdict,  or  that  thej 
should  starve.  The  jury  was  remanded  once  more,  till  seven 
o'clock  the  next  morning.  Then  the  question  was  again  put :  "  Is 
William  Penn  guilty  or  not  guilty  ?  " 

Foreman.    Not  guilty. 

Clerk.    Is  "William  Mead  guilty  or  not  guilty  ? 

Foreman.  Not  guilty. 

The  assembly  showed  their  satisfaction,  but  the  recorder  de- 
manded that  each  separate  juror  should  declare  for  himself  the 
verdict.  It  was  done.  Penn  then  demanded  his  liberty,  but  it 
was  denied  him,  because  his  fines  were  not  paid.  In  the  issue, 
Penn,  Mead  and  the  jury,  were  consigned  to  Newgate.  How  they 
recovered  their  liberty  is  unknown.^ 

The  trials  undergone  by  the  quakers  under  the  six  oppressive 
acts  of  Charles  II.  were  very  severe.  On  the  accession  of  the 
king  they  had  enjoyed  a  momentary  respite,  and  had  been  deliv- 
ered from  the  confinement  in  which  they  were  held.  Their  bold 
and  unflinching  testimony  had  been,  however,  of  the  greatest 
service  in  advancing  the  recognition  of  the  principles  of  religious 
liberty,  and  none  more  warmly  recognized  their  services  than  the 
baptists,  themselves  very  prominent  sufferers  in  the  sacred  cause. 
The  interval  was  a  brief  one.  Like  other  dissenters,  they  became, 
after  the  restoration,  the  prey  of  unprincipled  informers,  and  were 
harassed  by  all  the  variety  of  penal  enactments,  by  fines,  distraints, 
imprisonment.  In  1683  there  were,  it  was  computed,  seven  hun- 
dred members  of  their  society  in  the  different  prisons  of  England. 

•  This  whole  trial  may  be  found  in  "  Phoenix  ;  or,  a  Revival  of  Scarce  and 
Valuable  Pieces.  London,  1707."  Its  efifect  on  the  cause  of  liberty  was  pro- 
digious. 


CHAPTER    IX 


"Christ's  crown  and  covenant." 


■  Tyrants  !  could  not  misfortune  teach 
That  man  has  rights  beyond  your  reach  1 
Thought  ye  the  torture  and  the  stake 
Could  that  intrepid  spirit  break. 
Which  even  in  woman's  breast  withstood 
The  terrors  of  the  fire  and  blood  1"  —  Scott. 

HIGH  is  the  way  to  Bothwell-bridge  ? " 
was  my  question,  as,  alighting  from  one  of 
the  Glasgow  railroads  near  the  village  of 
Uddingstone,  I  sought  my  course  onwards. 
*'  There  is  a  regular  road  to  it,  sir ;  turn 
to  your  left,  and  you  '11  be  there."  No 
course  could  be  more  agreeable  than  that 
to  which  my  informant  just  pointed.  It 
was  what  it  became  a  road  to  be  which 
passed  through  the  estates  of  the  Douglases 
and  Hamiltons,  broad,  trim,  well-sheltered 
by  trees,  and  affording  plentiful  accommo- 
dation for  the  foot-passenger.  The  country 
around  was  bold  and  charming ;  smiling, 
luxuriant,  open  scenery,  never  rugged  and  precipitous,  made  up 
of  recurrent  "  lines  of  beauty."  I  know  of  no  sensations  more 
agreeable  than  those  which  attend  a  fine  day  in  a  rich  country , 
especially  if,  with  an  unexhausted  body,  one  treads  over  ground 
which  has  been  the  seat  of  ancient  story,  expecting,  at  each  turn 
or  ascent,  gome  characteristic  view,  or  some  object  of  historical 


COVETANTEBS'   BANNER. 


286  Christ's  CROw^  and  covenant. 

interest.  It  was  in  this  mood  that,  under  the  shadow  of  the 
park-wall  of  Lord  Douglas,  I  drew  near  to  the  pleasant  but  very 
modern  village  of  Bothwell,  or  Both'll  as  it  is  called  by  the  natives, 
encountering  in  my  way,  however,  very  little  of  that  which  I 
sought,  though  the  graceful  Free  Church,  and  the  imposing  tower 
of  the  Established  one,  might  have  claimed,  at  another  time,  some 
passing  admiration.  But  I  knew  that  I  was  within  reach  of 
scenes  which,  slowly  as  they  might  develop  themselves,  are  attract- 
ive to  the  tourist,  and  full  of  interest  to  the  eager  antiquary. 
Somewhere  to  my  right,  though  I  could  not  yet  see  it,  was  the 
ruin  of  the  ancient  castle  of  Bothwell,  associated  with  the  memo- 
ries of  Wallace,  Edward  I.,  Bruce,  and  the  dark  and  desperate 
husband  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots.  I  knew  that  I  was  not  far 
distant  from  the  ruins  of  Blantyre  Priory,  founded  by  Alexander 
II.,  and  from  "  Bothwell  banks,  that  bloom  so  fair,"  situated  upon 
its  opposite  side.  Each  eminence  I  climbed  might,  for  aught  I 
knew,  bring  into  view  the  palace  and  park  of  the  Duke  of  Hamil- 
ton might  open  a  prospect  which  would  comprehend  the  estate 
whence  the  injured  and  revengeful  assassin  of  the  Regent  Murray 
derived  his  title  ;  or  introduce  me  to  the  remnants  of  the  ancient 
Caledonian  forest,  once  famous  for  its  breed  of  wild  cattle,  now 
almost  extinct ;  or  to  the  ruins  of  the  fortress  of  Craignethan, 
better  known  under  the  name  of  Tillietudlem.  Such,  at  least,  are 
the  localities  which  solicit,  in  this  neighborhood,  the  regards  of  the 
passing  traveller.  I  was  not  far,  moreover,  from  the  historical 
town  of  Hamilton,  which  I  afterwards  visited,  and  found  to  resem- 
ble, in  its  better  parts,  a  slip-shod  damsel  caught  in  her  slovenliest 
dishabille  upon  a  washing-day ;  and  in  its  worst,  nothing  to  which 
an  Englishman's  notion  of  a  country  town  could,  for  filth  and 
wretchedness,  furnish  a  comparison ;  and  this,  too,  though  lying 
in  the  immediate  adjacency  of  the  duke's  "  peelace  "  itself  Some 
one  has  said  that,  were  he  a  monarch,  the  first  thing  he  would  do 
would  be  to  run  away  with  his  crown.  Methinks,  were  I  the  Duke 
of  Hamilton,  my  first  measure  would  be  to  annihilate,  if  I  could 


CHRIST  S    CROWN    AND    COVENANT. 


287 


not  reform,  the  town  which  gave  me  mj  title.     But  this  is  an 
anticipation. 

Passing  through  the  village  of  Both  well,  one  descends,  by  a 
gentle  slope,  to  the  banks  of  the  Clyde.  But  it  is  not  till  you 
have  just  reached  the  spot,  that  you  obtain  a  sight  of  the  trans- 
fluvial  erection  which  bears  the  name  of  Bothwell-bridge.  It  is 
well  to  cavil  at  antiquarian  tastes,  and  to  complain  that  they  would 
willingly  reduce  the  world  to  a  heap  of  ruins ;  but  it  is  impost?.ible 
to  repress  a  feeling  of  disappointment,  when  modern  improvement 
has  erased  so  many  vestiges  of  ancient  association.     The  history 


BOTHWELL-BRIDGE. 


of  the  covenanters  represents  this  celebrated  bridge  as  about  twelve 
feet  in  breadth ;  it  is  now  thirty-two.  A  main  feature  of  the 
romantic  story  is  connected  with  an  embattled  gateway,  which 
stood  on  its  south-east  end ;  it  has  been  long  entirely  removed. 
Instead  of  the  sharp  acclivity  which  rose  up  to  a  point  from  each 
side  of  the  river,  the  road  over  the  Clyde  is  now  as  level  as  that 
of  Waterloo-bridge  in  London.  On  the  further  side,  too,  where  the 
body  of  the  insurgents  were  once  mustered,  "grove'"  now  "nods 


288  Christ's  crown  and  covenant. 

on  grove,"  round  the  beautiful  entrance  to  Hamilton-park,  in  all 
the  plentifulness  of  ornamental  plantations.  But  I  checked  myself 
by  remembering  the  Frenchman's  definition  of  a  tory,  that  he  was 
one  who,  if  he  had  been  living  at  the  creation,  would  have  said, 
"  Let  chaos  be,"  and  I  endeavored  to  discover  what  might  render 
these  egregious  improvements  less  distressing.  When  I  expressed 
my  disappointment  to  the  toll-keeper,  he  forthwith  took  me  to  a 
point  whence  I  perceived  that,  though  on  one  side  the  bridge  was 
much  changed,  the  other  side  was  yet  unaltered.  One  looks  with 
deep  interest  on  those  buttresses,  now  gray  with  age,  and  partially 
overgrown  with  grass  and  low  shrubs,  as  one  thinks  that  they  were 
the  very  objects  on  which  the  eyes  of  the  covenanters  and  their 
persecutors  had  alike  rested ;  that  Hamilton,  Burley  and  Hack- 
stone,  on  the  one  side,  and  Monmouth,  Dalzell  and  Claverhouse, 
on  the  other,  had  manoeuvred  in  view  of  them ;  that  here  the 
deadly  battle  had  raged  ;  and  that  the  river  which  flowed  beneath 
that  bridge  in  1679  poured  its  tide  along  as  deep  and  rapid  as  it 
does  to-day,  though  then  it  bore  with  it  gallant  bodies,  and  ran  red 
with  the  blood  of  the  slain. 

It  was  the  distinguishing  characteristic  of  all  the  Stuarts,  that, 
ignorant  alike  of  true  liberty  and  spiritual  religion,  they  had  no 
other  notions  of  the  right  and  the  true  than  those  which  were 
forced  upon  them  by  the  groans  and  rebellion  of  their  outraged 
subjects.  The  example  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  might  have  taught 
a  son  ordinarily  constituted  some  lessons  on  the  evil  of  misrule  ; 
it  left  James  I.  not  a  whit  the  wiser.  Instead  of  deriving  benefit 
from  the  experience  of  his  father,  Charles  I.  surpassed  him  in  mis- 
calculation. The  son  of  that  monarch  who  had  lost  his  head  on  a 
scafibld  for  not  respecting  the  people's  rights  was  no  sooner  seated 
in  power,  than  he  trod  the  very  path  of  his  more  determined 
father ;  transmitting  to  his  brother  James,  and  after  him  to  his 
sister.  Queen  Anne,  precisely  the  same  predilections.  In  the  case 
of  Charles  II.  there  were  some  events  which  rendered  his  conduct 
peculiarly  inexcusable.  He  was  not  ignorant  of  what  he  might 
deem  the  bigoted  peculiarities  of  the  Scottish  character ;  he  had 


Christ's  crown  and  covenant.  289 

resided  among  the  people  ;  had  himself  signed,  voluntarily  or 
involuntarily,  the  Scottish  covenant ;  had  professed  to  mourn  over 
the  sins  of  his  father ;  and,  though  he  had  protested  that  "  pres- 
byterianisi::  was  no  religion  for  a  gentleman,"^  he  had  been 
indebted  to  that  very  system  for  his  reinstatement  on  a  throne, 
forfeited  by  his  ancestors  for  their  fondness  for  tyranny,  and  their 
recklessness  of  all  laws,  divine  and  human.  If  conscience  could 
not  bind  him,  at  least  policy  and  interest  might  be  expected  to 
exert  some  sway.  But  Charles  II.  was  not  to  be  bound.  A  lib- 
ertine, and  reproved  as  such  by  some  of  the  Scottish  ministers  in 
his  earlier  days ;  a  hard-hearted,  ungrateful  man,  as  was  proved 
by  his  conduct  to  his  former  friends ;  t  a  traitor  to  his  promises, 
some  of  which  had  specially  regarded  the  security  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland  ;  a  man  to  whose  carelessness  and  cold-blooded  apathy 
sorrow  and  suffering  were  indifferent ;  —  such  are  the  hands  into 
which  the  constitution  of  church  and  state  provides  that  spiritual 
matters  may  be  thrown ;  and  such  was  the  man  whom,  though 
they  did  not  take  the  pains  they  might  have  done  to  know  him 
well,  a  large  party  in  both  Scotland  and  England  reinstated  on  the 
throne  as  their  covenanted  king.     They  had  their  reward. 

The  observations  already  submitted  to  the  reader  on  the  course 
of  policy  adopted  by  the  presbyterians,  relative  to  the  questions  of 
religious  liberty,  will  sufl&ciently  exempt  us  from  the  charge  of 
vindicating  their  course.  But,  whatever  the  inconsistency  of  their 
system,  Charles  was  deeply  pledged  to  support  it.  A  letter  from 
him,  addressed  to  the  presbyterian  body  in  iTdinburgh,  to  be  trans- 
mitted by  them  to  the  other  presbyteries,  contained  the  assurance, 

*  "  An  anecdote  is  told  of  Mr.  Eobert  Blair's  civility  to  Charles,  who  visited 
him  at  his  own  house.  Mr.  Blair  was  minister  at  St.  Andrew's,  and  '  famous 
for  his  familiar  way.'  When  the  king  came  in  he  was  sitting  on  a  chair,  being 
at  the  time  under  a  bodily  infirmity,  which  kept  him  from  rising,  and  excused 
it.  "When  I\Irs.  Blair  ran  to  fetch  a  seat  to  his  majesty,  he  said,  'My  heart, 
do  not  trouble  yourself  ;  he  is  a  young  man,  and  may  draw  in  one  to  himself.' " 
—  Memoirs  of  Blackader. 

f  The  Act  of  Oblivion  and  Indemnity  was  called,  sarcastically,  "an  act  of 
oblivion  for  h:s  friends  and  of  indemnity  for  his  enemies." 

25 


290  Christ's  crown  and  covenant. 

"  We  also  resolve  to  protect  and  preserve  the  government  of  tho 
Church  of  Scotland,  as  it  is  settled  by  law,  without  violation." 
There  were  two  men  about  the  court  of  Charles  whom  the  Church 
of  Scotland  regarded  as  hostages  for  the  performance  of  these 
promises.  They  were  both  covenanted  presbyterians  ;  one  of  them 
had  sat  as  a  Scottish  commissioner  in  the  assembly  of  divines,  tho 
other  was  a  minister  of  the  kirk  itself.  These  men  were  Lord 
Lauderdale  and  James  Sharp ;  men  at  that  time  trusted,  but  whose 
names  now  "fester  in  the  infamy  of  years."  =^ 

*  The  following  is  Bishop  Burnet's  description  of  Lauderdale  :  —  "I  knew 
him  very  particularly  ;  he  made  a  very  ill  appearance.  He  was  very  big,  his 
hair  red,  hanging  oddly  about  him.  His  tongue  was  too  big  for  his  mouth, 
which  made  him  bedew  all  that  he  talked  to ;  and  his  whole  manner  was  rough 
and  boisterous,  and  very  unfit  for  a  court.  He  was  very  learned,  not  only  in 
Latin,  in  which  he  was  a  master,  but  in  Greek  and  Hebrew.  He  had  read  a 
great  deal  of  divinity,  and  almost  all  the  historians,  ancient  and  modern,  so 
that  he  had  great  materials.  He  had  with  these  an  extraordinary  memory, 
and  a  copious,  but  unpolished  expression.  He  was  a  man,  as  the  Duke  of 
Buckingham  said  to  me,  of  a  blundering  understanding.  He  was  haughty 
beyond  expression,  —  abject  to  those  he  saw  he  must  stoop  to,  but  imperious  to 
others.  He  had  a  violence  of  passion  that  carried  him  often  to  fits  like  mad- 
ness, in  which  he  had  no  temper.  If  he  took  a  thing  wrong,  it  was  a  vain  thing 
to  study  to  convince  him.  That  would  rather  provoke  him  to  swear  he  would 
never  be  of  another  mind.  He  was  to  be  let  alone,  and  perhaps  he  would  have 
forgot  what  he  said,  and  come  about  of  his  own  accord.  He  was  the  coldest 
friend  and  the  violentest  enemy  I  ever  knew.  I  felt  it  too  much  not  to  know 
it.  He  at  first  seemed  to  despise  wealth ;  but  he  delivered  himself  up,  after- 
wards, to  luxury  and  sensuality ;  and  by  that  means  he  ran  into  a  vast  expense, 
and  stuck  at  nothing  that  was  necessary  to  support  it.  In  his  long  imprison- 
ments (for  the  cause  of  the  king,  to  which  he  had  apostatized),  he  had  great 
impressions  of  religion  on  his  mind  ;  but  he  wore  these  out  so  entirely,  that 
scarce  any  trace  of  them  was  left.  His  great  experience  in  affairs,  his  ready 
compliance  with  everything  that  he  thought  would  please  the  king,  and  his 
bold  offering  of  the  most  desperate  counsels,  gained  him  such  an  interest  in  the 
king,  that  no  attempt  against  him,  nor  complaint  of  him,  could  ever  shake  it, 
till  a  decay  of  strength  and  understanding  forced  him  to  let  go  his  hold.  He 
was,  in  his  principles,  much  against  popery  and  arbitrary  government ;  and 
yet,  by  a  fatal  train  of  passions  and  interests,  ho  made  way  for  the  former, 
and  had  almost  established  the  latter.  And  whereas  some,  by  a  smooth 
deportment,  made  the  first  beginnings  of  tyranny  less  discernible  and  unac- 


Christ's  crown  and  covenant.  291 

Under  their  deceitful  auspices  it  was  easy  to  persuade  the  pres- 
byterians  that  the  dispositions  of  the  king  were  such  as  to  render 
all  treaties  unnecessary.  Monk  had  pledged  himself  "  that  the 
welfare  of  the  church  should  be  a  great  part  of  his  care."  On  the 
23d  of  October,  1660,  Lauderdale,  then  secretary  of  state  for 
Scotland,  wrote  as  follows  :  "  As  to  the  concerns  of  our  Mother 
Kirk,  I  can  only  promise  my  faithful  endeavors  in  what  may  be 
for  her  good  ;  and,  indeed,  it  is  no  small  comfort  to  me,  in  serving 
my  master,  to  find  that  his  majestic  is  so  fixt  in  his  resolution  not 
to  alter  anything  in  the  government  of  that  church ;  of  this  you 
may  be  confident,  though  I  dare  not  answer  but  some  would  be 
willing  to  have  it  otherwise.  ^  =^  /  dare  answer  for  the  king^ 
having  of  late  had  full  contentment  in  discoursing  with  his  majestic 
on  that  subject."  Whatever  the  views  of  Lauderdale,  or  the  inten- 
tion of  Charles  on  his  first  accession,  however,  the  flame  soon  burst 
out.  In  the  act  which  asserted  the  king's  power  in  matters  of 
peace  or  war,  all  treaties  with  other  nations,  not  made  by  royal 
authority,  were  pronounced  treasonable.  The  "  covenanted  king,'' 
therefore,  had,  by  this  act,  provided  against  the  covenant  which  set 
him  on  his  throne.  In  the  same  year,  the  first  of  his  reign,  Charles, 
forgetful  of  his  father's  experience,  and  of  his  own  pledges,  per- 
mitted episcopacy  to  be  reestablished  in  Scotland.  This  was  done 
mainly  by  two  acts  :  one,  "  the  Act  of  Supremacy,"  which  consti- 
tuted the  king  supreme  judge  in  matters  ecclesiastical ;  whilst  the 
other,  "  the  Act  Rescissory,"  cancelled  all  the  acts  and  proceedings 
of  preceding  parliaments  between  the  years  1640  and  1648.  Laud 
erdale  is  not  to  be  blamed  for  this  act,  of  which  he  strongly  disap- 
proved, nor  even  Charles  himself;  it  was  passed  without  his  knowl- 
edge. It  was  proposed,  according  to  Burnet,  half  in  jest,  by 
Primrose,  the  quasi  master  of  the  rolls,  and  carried  through  by 
the  Scottish  ministry  after  a  drunken  freak.  By  the  Scottish 
parliament,  held  in  May,  1662,  it  was  required  that  all  appoint- 

ceptable,  he,  by  the  fury  of  his  behavior,  heightened  the  severity  of  his  min- 
istry, which  was  liker  the  cruelty  of  an  inquisition  than  the  legality  of 
justice."  —  Hist,  of  His  Own  Time,  vol.  i.,  p.  102. 


292  Christ's  crown  and  covenant. 

ments  to  Scottisli  benefices,  since  1649,  should  be  confirmed  by 
their  respective  patrons,  and  also  by  the  bishop  of  the  diocese. 
Foiir  hundred  ministers  refused  to  comply  with  these  terms,  and 
were  summarily  ejected.  Sharp  was  promoted  to  the  archiepisco- 
pal  see  of  St.  Andrew's.  At  the  ?nme  time.  Dr.  Leigh  ton,  son  to 
the  persecuted  puritan,  who  had  never  liked  presbytery,  but  had 
consistently  adhered  to  the  king,  was  appointed  Bishop  of  Dun- 
blane, which  he  chose  because  the  diocese  was  the  smallest.  His 
piety  was  most  eminent ;  but  if,  as  Burnet  says,  he  disliked  pres- 
byterianism  because  of  its  fury  against  those  who  difiered  from  it, 
his  judgment  was  considerably  inferior  to  his  piety,  when  he  joined 
the  most  cruelly  persecuting  establishment  that  ever  existed.  He 
afterwards  desired  to  resign  his  bishopric.  These  symptoms  of  the 
designs  of  the  court  justified  the  utmost  distrust  on  the  part  of  the 
presbyterians ;  and,  in  a  letter  to  Lord  Lauderdale,  in  the  begin- 
ning of  1661,  Baillie  speaks  out  in  a  very  uncompromising  style  : 
"  What  needed  you  do  that  disservice  to  the  king,  which  all  of  you 
cannot  recompense,  —  to  grieve  the  hearts  of  all  your  gracious 
friends  in  Scotland,  to  whom  the  king  was,  is,  and  will  be,  I  hope, 
after  God,  most  dear,  —  with  pulling  down  all  our  laws  at  once 
which  concerned  our  church  since  1633  ?  Was  this  good  advice, 
or  will  this  thrive  ?  Is  it  wisdom  to  bring  back  upon  us  the  Can- 
terburyian  times  ?  The  same  designs,  the  same  practices,  will 
they  not  at  last  bring  upon  us  the  same  horrible  effects,  whatever 
fools  dream  ?  =^  ^  My  lord,  ye  are  the  noblemen  of  the  world  I 
esteem  most,  and  love  best.  =^  ^  If  you  have  gone  with  your 
heart  to  forsake  your  covenant,  to  countenance  the  introduction 
of  bishops  and  books,  and  strengthening  the  king  by  your  advice 
in  these  things,  I  think  yoU  a  prime  transgressor,  and  liable  among 
the  first  to  answer  to  God  for  that  great  sin,  and  opening  a  door, 
which  in  haste  will  not  be  closed,  for  persecution  of  a  multitude  of 
the  best  persons  and  most  loyal  subjects  that  are  in  all  the  three 
dominions  "=^    In  another  letter  to  a  friend,  the  same  writer  says, 

♦  Baillie,  April  18,  1661. 


CHRIST'S   CROWN    AND    COVENANT.  293 

"What  ye  desire  me  to  write  to  Lauderdaill,  I  have  done  it 
already,  as  my  testament  to  him,  fully  and  sharply  enough.  ^  ^ 
I  think,  verily,  if  that  wicked  change  come,  it  will  hasten  me  to 
my  grave." ^  It  did;  the  next  year  the  good,  but  in  many 
respects  mistaken  man,  died. 

The  king  on  resuming  his  throne  had  declared,  presbytery 
being  then  the  order  of  the  day,  that  it  was  his  intention  to  uphold 
the  Church  of  Scotland  as  by  law  established.  The  miserable  shift 
now  was,  that  as  all  the  laws  upholding  presbyterianism  had  been 
rescinded  by  parliament,  in  supporting  episcopacy  against  presby- 
terianism, he  was  but  redeeming  his  pledge.  The  careful  observer 
will  not  fail  to  mark  in  this  a  peculiar  condition  of  a  law-church 
—  that  the  power  which  makes  is  equally  competent  to  unmake. 
But  the  whole  course  of  proceedings  in  England  and  Scotland 
was  a  series  of  occurrences  impossible  to  be  believed,  had  not  the 
facts  demonstrated  them  to  be  too  true. 

A  fierce,  exterminating  war  was  now  carried  on  against  the 
presbyterians,  by  the  very  men  they  had  most  trusted.  The  roy- 
alists avenged  themselves  for  their  wrongs,  real  and  supposed,  by 
every  kind  of  reprisal.  The  Marquess  of  Argyll  was  brought  to 
the  block  in  requital  for  the  part  he  had  taken  against  Charles  I., 
and  in  the  execution  of  Montrose.t  The  hand  of  Lauderdale  was 
early  turned  against  his  former  companions.  Among  these  John- 
ston of  Warriston  deserves  to  be  commemorated. 

*  Baillie,  June  24,  1661. 

t  Argyll  pleaded  the  Act  of  Oblivion  as  to  these  oflFences,  which,  by  interven- 
tion of  the  king,  was  allowed  ;  and  when,  moreover,  charged  with  taking  office 
under  Cromwell,  said,  "  What  could  he  think  of  that  matter,  after  so  eminent 
a  man  as  the  king's  advocate  had  done  the  same  '?  "  on  which  that  legal  func- 
tionary called  him  "  an  impudent  villain."  Argyll  was  at  last  condemned  on 
the  testimony  of  some  letters  which  he,  in  the  days  of  their  friendship,  had 
written  to  Monk,  and  which  Monk  now  sent  to  Scotland.  He  was  found  guilty 
of  treason,  and  beheaded  by  "the  maiden."  Some  of  the  noblest  blood  in 
Scotland  perished  by  this  prototype  of  the  guillotine,  of  the  invention  of  which 
BO  singular  a  story  exists.  The  E.irl  of  Argyll,  who  was  beheaded  in  1685,  for 
his  part  in  the  insurrection  of  the  Duke  of  Monmouth,  said  it  was  "  the  sweet- 
est maiden  he  had  ever  kissed." 

25=^ 


294  Christ's  ckovn  an^  covjiNANx. 

This  man,  uncle  of  Bishop  Burnet,  had  held  several  offices  of 
trust  under  the  Scottish  church,  and  had  been  appointed,  together 
with  Lauderdale  and  others,  commissioner  from  the  General  As- 
sembly to  the  Assembly  of  Divines.  He  was  a  thorough  presby- 
terian.  When  that  assembly  was  divided,  in  1650,  upon  the 
question  whether  malignants  should  be  taken  into  places  of  power 
and  trust,  he  had  asserted  the  negative,  and  had  written  and 
spoken  against  taking  office  under  Cromwell;  but  had  been,  at 
length,  after  much  importunity,  prevailed  upon  to  become  clerk 
register,  equivalent  to  master  of  the  rolls,  under  the  protectorate 
On  the  restoration,  he  was  ordered  to  be  seized,  and,  contriving 
to  escape,  was  declared  fugitive,  and  forfeiture  wiis  pronounced 
against  him.  It  is  said  that,  whilst  in  Hamburg,  poison  was 
administered  to  him  by  Dr.  Bates,  one  of  King  Charles'  physi- 
cians, who,  moreover,  caused  him  to  be  bled  to  such  an  extent 
that  he  narrowly  escaped  death  ;  and  that,  in  consequence  of  this 
treatment,  he  "so  far  lost  his  memory  that  he  could  not  remem- 
ber what  had  been  said  or  done  a  quarter  of  an  hour  before,  and 
continued  so  till  the  day  of  his  martyrdom."  He  was,  however  sit 
length  apprehended  at  Bouen,  whilst  engaged  in  his  private  devo- 
tions, and  committed  to  the  Tower  of  London,  whence  he  was  sent 
down  to  be  executed  at  Edinburgh.  He  was  so  miserable  a  wreck 
of  his  former  self,  that,  says  Burnet,  "  it  was  a  reproach  to  any 
government  to  proceed  against  him."  His  want  of  memory  ren- 
dered him  a  pitiable  spectacle  in  the  eyes  of  all  men,  excepting 
Sharp  and  the  bishops,  who  laughed  at  his  infirmities.  When  the 
question  arose  respecting  his  execution,  many  were  inclined  to 
delay  it ;  but  Lauderdale  interposed,  and  delivered  "  a  most  dread- 
ful speech  for  his  present  execution."  He  was,  accordingly,  sen- 
tenced to  be  hung  at  the  cross  of  Edinburgh,  and  his  head  placed  at 
the  Nether  Bow.  At  length,  having  spent  the  short  time  allotted 
to  him  in  the  most  devout  and  edifying  religious  exercises,  he  was 
taken  from  prison  to  undergo  his  sentence.  As  he  advanced  to  the 
(scaffold,  hf  called  out  to  the  people,  *'  Your  prayers !  your 
prayers !  "     Arrived  at  the  place  of  his  death,  he  said,  "  I  entreat 


Christ's  crown  and  covenant.  295 

you,  quiet  yourselves  a  little,  till  this  dying  man  deliver  his  last 
speech  among  you,"  —  requesting  them  to  bear  with  him  that  he 
made  use  of  notes  to  refresh  his  memory,  so  impaired  by  long  sick- 
ness and  the  cruelty  of  his  physicians.  In  this  speech  he  confessed 
his  sins,  bewailed  his  having  taken  j^art  with  the  usurper,  and 
declared  his  "  adherence  to  the  covenanted  work  of  the  reforma- 
tion," disavowing  any  part  in  the  late  king's  death,  committing  his 
soul  to  God,  and  occupying  himself  in  conclusion  in  fervent 
prayers,  though  denied  the  presence  of  any  minister.  He  was 
aided  up  the  ladder  by  some  of  his  friends,  and  when  he  reached 
the  summit,  he  exhorted  Christians  to  be  ready  to  suffer  in  the 
name  of  religion,  as  he  was.  The  executioner  desired  his  forgive- 
ness ;  to  which  he  replied,  "  The  Lord  forgive  thee,  poor  man !  " 
and  gave  him  money.  Then,  ejaculating,  "  0  pray,  pray  !  praise, 
praise,  praise  !  "  he  was  turned  off.=^  His  head  was  exposed  with 
that  of  James  Guthrie,  t  accused  of  conspiracy  against  Charles  I. 

At  this  period  the  solemn  league  and  covenant,  late  the  pride 
and  glory  of  the  prcsbyterians,  was  burnt  by  the  common  hangman, 
and  those  ministers  who  had  refused  to  submit  to  the  conditions  by 
which  alone  their  benefices  could  be  retained  were  replaced  by 
others.  These  successors  were  men  who  had  little  sympathy  with 
vital  religion ;  they  were,  by  their  very  position,  parasites ;  and 
they  were  frequently  ignorant,  and  often  grossly  immoral.  Under 
such  a  ministry,  the  churches,  which  now  echoed  weakly  to  the 
notes  of  passive  obedience  and  non-resistance,  became  almost  de- 
serted. At  the  same  time,  the  civil  offices  were  filled  by  liber- 
tines, or  by  avaricious  men,  who  availed  themselves  of  every 
advantage  for  their  own  aggrandizement.     The  general  assembly 

»  Howie's  Scots  Worthies,  pp.  228—237. 

t  This  Guthrie  had  been  minister  at  Stirling  at  the  time  of  Charles*  resi- 
dence there,  and  had  often  preached  at  his  majesty,  in  a  manner  which,  Bumot 
Bays,  was  "indecent  and  intolerable."  He  was  cited  before  the  king  to  answer 
for  his  sermons.  He  refused,  saying  that  the  king  and  council  were  not  author- 
ities in  matte  rs  of  doctrine .  This  irritated  the  king  excessively,  and  was  never 
forgotten. 


296 


CHRIST'S   CROWN    AND    COVENANT. 


was  dissolved ;  presbyteries  were  forbidden  ;  field-preaching  was 
prohibited,  as  an  act  of  sedition  and  contempt  of  the  royal  author- 
ity, exposing  the  ofi*ender  to  death  and  confiscation  of  property ; 
whilst  absentees  from  their  parish  churches  were  liable  to  the 
severest  penalties.  The  deprived  ministers  were  banished  to  a  dis- 
tance of  six  miles  from  any  city  or  cathedral  church,  and  three 
from  any  borough.  At  this  period,  also,  was  established  a  high 
commission  court,  where,  without  "  accusation,  evidence  or  de- 
fence," fines  and  imprisonment  were  extensively  inflicted.  Gen- 
tlemen and  ladies  of  rank  attending  field-preachings  were  pro- 
scribed, prohibited  from  conversing  with  their  nearest  friends,  or 
from  receiving  the  necessaries  of  life.  These  persecuting  laws  were 
put  into  execution  in  a  manner  which  renders  it  difficult  to  deter- 
mine whether  ferocity  or  cupidity  were  the  most  conspicuous. 
When  Lauderdale  received  fines  for  attending  conventicles,  he  said, 
"  Now,  gentlemen,  you  know  the  price  of  a  conventicle,  and  shame 
fall  them  that  tires  first."  And  when  a  soldier,  pursuing  his 
severe  exactions,  was  asked  by  his  victim  why  he  was  so  treated, 
he  replied,  "  Because  ye  have  gear,  and  I  maun  ha'  a  share  o  't." 
A  deputation  waited  on  Lauderdale,  to  petition  for  liberty.  "  This 
put,"  says  Burnet,  "  Duke  Lauderdale  in  such  a  frenzy,  that  at 
the  council  table  he  made  bare  his  arms,  above  his  elbows,  and 
swore  by  Jehovah  that  he  would  make  them  enter  into  these  bonds." 
The  military  apostle  of  this  persecution  was  Sir  J.  Turner,  who, 
savage  by  nature,  and  usually  half-drunk,  swept  like  a  whirlwind 
over  Nithsdale  and  Galloway,  at  the  head  of  his  "  lambs  "  (as  in 
bitter  irony  they  were  termed),  dragging  people  to 
church,  devouring  the  substance  of  families,  bind- 
ing prisoners  with  iron  chains,  applying  thumb- 
screws and  instruments  of  torture,  and  carrying 
ruin  and  desolation  in  his  train.  "  Sabbath  was 
the  day  on  which  these  extravagances  were  very 
often  committed.  The  soldiers  sat  drinking  and 
THE  GAG.*       revelling   in   the   nearest   alehouse  until    public 

*  An  instrument  of  torture,  extensively  used  at  this  period.     It  was  em- 
ployed in  the  burning  of  witches,  to  stifle  their  cries  during  execution. 


Christ's  crown  and  covenant.  297 

worship  drew  to  a  close.  The  last  psalm  was  the  signal  of  attack ; 
they  sallied  from  the  r  cups,  surrounded  the  church-yard,  and 
placed  sentinels  at  the  doors.  The  people  were  made  to  pass  out 
one  by  one,  and  interrogated  whether  they  belonged  to  that  con- 
gregation. If  they  answered  in  the  negative,  they  were  fined  upon 
the  spot ;  generally,  all  the  money  they  had  was  taken  from  them. 
Those  who  had  none,  or  too  little,  were  plundered  of  their  coats, 
hoods,  plaids  and  Bibles ;  and  the  soldiers,  laden  with  their  sacrile- 
gious spoils,  returned  from  the  house  of  God  as  from  the  field  of  bat- 
tle, or  the  pillage  of  a  stormed  city.  In  churches  where  a  presby- 
terian  officiated,  they  were  not  to  be  obstructed  by  doors  or  decency, 
but  would  rudely  interrupt  the  divine  service,  entering  in  armed 
parties,  wounding,  and  haling  multitudes  from  devotion  to  impris- 
onment. After  all  this  insolence  and  barbarity,  to  secure  them- 
selves from  danger,  they  compelled  the  people  to  declare,  by 
certificate,  that  they  had  been  kindly  dealt  with,  and  bind  them- 
selves to  make  no  complaints."  =^  "  They  suffered  extremities  that 
tongue  cannot  describe,  and  which  heart  can  scarcely  conceive  of, 
from  the  dismal  circumstances  of  hunger,  nakedness,  and  the 
severity  of  the  climate ;  lying  in  damp  caves,  and  in  hollow  clefts 
of  the  naked  rocks,  without  shelter,  covering,  fire  or  food ;  none 
durst  harbor,  entertain,  relieve,  or  speak  to  them,  on  pain  of 
death.  Many,  for  venturing  to  receive  them,  were  forced  to  fly, 
and  several  put  to  death  for  no  other  offence ;  fathers  were  perse- 
cuted for  supplying  their  children,  and  children  for  nourishing 
their  parents ;  husbands  for  harboring  their  wives,  and  wives  for 
cherishing  their  own  husbands.  The  ties  and  obligations  of  the  laws 
of  nature  were  no  defence,  but  it  was  made  death  to  perform  natu- 
ral duties ;  and  many  suffered  death  for  acts  of  piety  and  charity,  in 
cases  where  human  nature  could  not  bear  the  thoughts  of  suffering 
it."  "  Such  of  them  as  escaped  execution  were  transported,  or 
rather  sold  as  slaves,  to  people  desolate  and  barbarous  colonies ; 
the  price  of  a  whig  was  fixed  at  five  pounds,  and  sometimes  they 

*  Memoirs  of  Blackader. 


298  Christ's  crown  and  covenant. 

were  given  away  in  presents  by  their  judges."  =^  Many  were 
"  indicted,  tried  and  execu^^ed,  on  the  same  day,  and  intercessions 
on  their  behalf  met  with  the  reply  that  '  they  should  have  no  time 
to  prepare  for  heaven,  for  hell  was  too  good  for  them.'  Drums  were 
ordered  to  be  beat  at  the  execution,  to  drown  the  dying  words  of 
the  martyrs ;  and  the  least  expression  of  sympathy  in  the  crowd 
exposed  the  individual  to  be  dragged  to  the  scaffold." 

A  general  convulsion  followed.  Maddened  by  the  repetition 
of  such  outrages,  many  of  the  people  rose  against  Turner,  and 
over-estimating,  as  excited  popular  assemblies  are  apt  to  do,  their 
real  power,  marched  in  a  body  to  Edinburgh.  They  were  met  at 
the  Pentland-hills  by  General  Dalzell,  and  were  routed  in  great 
confusion.     But  they  were  not  yet  subdued. 

The  ablest  of  hands  has  drawn  the  portrait  —  far  too  favorable 
—  of  one  of  the  men  most  distinguished  as  a  royalist  in  suppress- 
ing these  insurrections,  whose  name  first  appears  at  the  battle  of 
the  Pentland-hills  —  Graham  of  Claverhouse.  Brave,  imperious, 
unswerving,  he  was  cruel,  implacable,  and  fearfully  revengeful. 
His  commanding  and  handsome  person  might  have  been  justly 
admired,  had  there  not  been  a  Medea-like  ferocity  discernible  in 
that  bold  forehead,  on  those  widely  separated  eyes,  and  on  that 
curled  lip,  which  he  had  in  common  with  others  of  his  class,  —  as, 
for  instance,  with  the  modern  Murat.  The  most  terrible  super- 
stitions attached  themselves  to  his  name.  It  was  the  age  in  which 
men  believed  much  —  often  too  much ;  and  Claver'se,  as  he  was 
called,  was  supposed  to  be  closely  in  league  with  the  author  of  all 
evil.  There  are  some  who  still  believe  that,  at  the  battle  of  Kil- 
liecrankie,  in  which  he  fell,  fighting  for  the  lost  cause  of  James 
II.,  no  bullet  of  lead  would  take  effect  on  him,  and  that  he  was 
killed  by  a  silver  button,  shot  at  him  by  his  own  servant. 

DalzeL,,  associated  with  lim  in  these  cruel  campaigns,  was  not 
less  notorious.  His  portrait  is  characterized  by  a  head  of  unusual 
size,  which  he  had  sworn  never  to  shave  after  the  death  of  Charles 
I.     He  had  first  learned  war  in  Muscovy,  where  he  was  charged 

♦  M'Crie'a  Vindication  of  Scottish  Covenanters. 


Christ's  crown  and  covenant.  299 

with  roasting  men  alive.  His  cruelties  were  enormous.  He 
struck  one  prisoner  before  the  privj-council  with  the  pommel  of 
his  sword  "  on  the  face,  till  the  blood  sprung."  He  imprisoned 
another  poor  victim,  who  suffered  a  man,  pursued  by  his  soldiers, 
to  run  through  her  house,  in  the  thieves'  hole  at  Kilmarnock, 
"  among  toads,  and  other  venomous  creatures,"  as  the  relator  tells 
us,  "  where  her  shrieks  were  heard  at  a  distance,  but  none  durst 
help  her."  When  one  of  his  victims  pleaded  his  age  as  a  reason 
why  he  should  not  suffer  banishment,  he  savagely  told  him  that 
he  was  not  too  old  to  hang  —  "  he  would  hang  well  enough."  He 
was  a  ferocious  rufl&an,  worse,  in  some  respects,  if  that  were  pos- 
sible, than  Claverhouse  himself. 

But  the  man  who  was  suspected  of  being  the  real  instigator  of 
these  unmanly  outrages  was  James  Sharp.  We  have  said  that  he 
received  the  archiepiscopal  see  of  St.  Andrew's  as  the  price  of  his 
treachery.  He  was  a  fellow-student  at  St.  Andrew's  with  Guth- 
rie, of  whom  we  have  spoken,  and  who  wrote  upon  him  the  follow- 
ing distich,  which  marks  the  early  character  of  the  man : 

"  If  thou,  Sharp,  die  the  common  death  of  men, 
I  '11  burn  my  bill  and  throw  away  my  pen." 

He  was  charged,  when  young,  with  murdering  his  own  infant, 
and  burying  its  dead  body  beneath  the  hearth-stone.  As,  how- 
ever, he  avowed  his  repentance  for  the  act,  it  did  not  prevent  his 
becoming,  afterwards,  minister  of  Craill.  He  had  been,  on  more 
than  one  occasion,  chosen  by  the  Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land as  its  confidential  agent.  But  when  the  restoration  took 
place,  the  part  he  took  was  characterized  by  the  most  treacherous 
duplicity.  It  was  he  who  persuaded  the  presbyterians  that  there 
was  no  need  to  make  terms  with  the  king,  and  who  asserted  that 
the  rumored  intention  of  Charles  to  set  up  prelacy  was  "  a  mali- 
cious lie."  It  was,  however,  most  probable  that  the  restoration 
of  prelacy  took  place  at  his  suggestion.  When  he  had  received 
the  archbishopric  of  St.  Andrew's  and  the  primacy  of  Scotland,  he 
became  an  unrelenting  persecutor  of  his  former  friends,  continually 


800  Christ's  crown  and  covenant. 

stimulating  the  privy-council  to  fresh  acts  of  severity,  and  even 
exceeding  those  remorseless  inquisitors  in  his  love  of  cruelty  and 
thirst  for  blood.  He  encouraged  the  clergy  to  supply  him  with 
informations,  and  proceeded  against  the  accused  with  the  most 
incredible  rigor.  The  consequences  were  such  as  might  have  been 
almost  foreseen,  in  a  day  when  religion  often  took  a  form  of  pas- 
sionate enthusiasm,  and  lov6d  to  array  itself  in  the  habiliments  of 
an  ancient  and  semi-civilized  antiquity.  Stung  to  madness  by  the 
inquisitorial  injuries  inflicted  by  the  archbishop,  and.  justifying 
their  savage  proceedings  by  Jewish  precedent,  nine  men  conspired 
to  waylay  and  murder  the  spy  of  Sharp  —  one  Carmichael. 
Among  these  associates  was  Hackston  of  Kathillet,  his  brother-in- 
law,  Burley  of  Kinlock,  or  Balfour,  and  Robert  Hamilton.  As 
they  searched  for  the  informer  on  Magus  Moor,  near  St.  Andrew's, 
they  were  informed  of  the  vicinity  of  the  archbishop  himself. 
The  primate  was  in  his  carriage,  with  his  daughter  by  his  side. 
Perceiving  their  approach,  he  urged  his  attendants  to  put  the 
horses  to  their  utmost  speed.  It  was  in  vain.  One  of  the  pur- 
suers, better  mounted  than  the  rest,  cut  the  traces  of  the  horses 
and  wounded  the  postilion,  and  the  whole  party  was  soon  upon  the 
spot.  Then  Burley,  exclaiming  "  Judas,  be  taken !  "  fired  a  pistol 
into  the  carriage,  from  so  short  distance  as  to  set  the  archbishop's 
lawn  sleeves  on  fire.  He  was  then  dragged  out  of  his  carriage, 
whilst  the  rest  of  the  party  fired  their  pistols  at  him  in  a  volley. 
Imagining  they  had  completed  the  dreadful  deed,  they  were  riding 
ofi",  when  one  of  them  overheard  the  lady  saying  to  the  postilion 
that  her  father  was  not  yet  dead.  On  this,  Burley  returned,  and 
kicking  off  the  prelate's  hat  with  his  foot,  cleft  his  skull  with 
his  sabre. 

Far  be  it  from  us,  whatever  the  provocation,  to  justify  such  a 
deed  of  cold-blooded  assassination.  It  has  been  often  exhibited  in 
its  terrors  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  religious  men  of  that  day, 
and  by  none  more  forcibly  than  by  the  late  Sir  Walter  Scott.  It 
was  a  deed  which,  under  any  circumstances  of  aggravation,  Chris- 
tianity scorns  even   to  palliate.     But,  because   Balfour   and  his 


Christ's  crown  and  coven  int.  301 

party  were  bloody  assassins,  it  does  not  follow  that  the  Archbishop 
of  St.  Andrew's  was  a  saint.  ^ 

Chambers,  in  his  "  Picture  of  Scotland,"  relates  the  following 
anecdote,  which,  he  says,  "  we  received  from  the  grandson  of  the 
person  who  witnessed  it :  " 

"  Between  ninety  and  a  hundred  years  ago,  an  aged  man,  of  a 
forlorn  and  wretched  appearance,  applied  for  lodging  at  a  small 
public-house  in  the  suburb  of  Edinbro',  called  Portsburgh.  He 
seemed  tc  have  just  terminated  a  long  and  painful  journey,  and, 
from  his  lodging  at  this  part  of  the  town,  was  supposed  to  be  a 
west-country-man.  During  the  night  he  alarmed  and  attracted 
the  people  of  the  house  by  sounds  which  betokened  great  bodily 
pain.  A  light  being  brought  forward  to  his  wretched  pallet,  he 
was  found  to  be  in  the  deid  thraws,  his  body  convulsed,  his  eye 
glazed,  and  tee(h  set.  In  a  little  time,  collecting  the  remnants  of 
his  strength,  he  raised  his  right  hand  above  his  head,  and  ex- 
claimed, in  a  voice  that  indicated  extreme  remorse,  '  There 's  the 
hand  that  slaughtered  Bishop  Sharp ;  is  there  ony  blude  on  't, 
think  ye  ? '  Having  uttered  this,  he  expired.  The  body  was 
buried  among  the  strangers  in  the  Greyfriars'  church-yard." 

This  deed  instigated  the  privy  council  to  new  acts  of  severity. 
The  act  was  really  that  of  a  party  only,  but  it  was  made  the 
pretext  for  new  harassments  and  persecutions.     One  of  the  first 

*  Every  Christian  man,  well  read  in  history,  cannot  fail  to  regard  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Waverley  Novels  with  the  utmost  jealousy.  The  author's  love  for 
history  is  that  of  an  antiquarian,  not  that  of  a  moralist.  He  is  usually  true 
to  scenery,  costume,  and  to  the  great  incidents  he  professes  to  record.  But, 
though  it  is  sometimes  difficult  to  lay  one's  finger  on  the  precise  passage  one 
would  dispute,  the  tendencies  of  the  whole  are,  usually,  where  religion  is  con- 
cerned, most  false.  The  worst  evils  of  the  anti-religious  party  are  smoothed 
or  totally  suppressed  ;  the  severity  and  errors  of  the  nonconformists  tortured 
into  the  ridiculous,  or  exaggerated  into  the  wildest  enthusiasm.  Much  of  this 
falsification  is  effected  by  the  introduction  of  fictitious  personages,  placed  in 
situations  so  ridiculous,  or  unfavorable,  as  to  deprive  the  reader  of  all  sym- 
pathy with  their  opinions.  Party  had  something  to  do  with  this  misrepresent- 
ation ;  a  love  of  military  glory  still  more  ;  Jacobinical  propensities  even  more 
yet  ;  and,  it  is  to  be  feared,  a  dislike  of  spiritual  religion  most  of  all. 

26 


302  Christ's  crown  and  covenant. 

questions  hereafter  put  to  the  suspected  was,  whether  the  y  thought 
the  death  of  the  archbishop  a  justifiable  act  ?  It  will  be  readily 
imagined  that  many,  who  would  have  revolted  from  that  deed  with 
horror  and  indignation,  had  its  perpetration  been  proposed  to  them- 
selves, would  be  slow,  under  the  common  persecution  which  in- 
volved them  all,  to  sacrifice  their  criminal  brethren.  Fresh  orders 
were  given  to  proceed  against  all  who  were  found  attending  field- 
meetings,  as  traitors ;  and  as  an  act  to  this  effect  was  the  last  to 
which  Sharp  had  set  his  hand,  the  severe  measure  was  entitled 
"  the  bishop's  legacy." 

Under  the  command  of  Robert  Hamilton,  brother  to  Sir  W. 
Hamilton,  of  Preston,  a  Cameronian  of  the  severest  order,  the 
persecuted  presbyterians  flew  to  arms.  Marching  in  a  body  to 
E-utherglen,  where  illuminations  were  taking  place  in  honor  of  the 
restoration,  they  extinguished  the  bonfires,  burned  at  the  market- 
cross  copies  of  the  several  edicts  by  which  they  were  oppressed, 
and  retired,  leaving  behind  them  a  statement  of  the  causes  which 
had  led  them  to  take  up  arms  against  the  government. 

Claverhouse  now  took  the  field,  and  having  understood  that  an 
open-air  meeting  was  to  be  held  at  Loudon  Hill,  about  twelve 
miles  from  Hamilton,  resolved  to  disperse  it.  But  his  forces, 
having  been  suddenly  called  into  action,  were  weak,  amounting 
only  to  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  foot  soldiers,  besides  a  few  horse, 
and  neither  well  armed.  He  had  full  powers  to  kill  all  whom  he 
found  in  a  posture  of  rebellion.  But  the  ground  on  which  ho 
found  the  covenanters  encamped  had  been  skilfully  chosen,  with  a 
morass  in  their  front.  Claverhouse  was  routed  for  the  only  time 
during  his  life,  and  compelled  to  retreat  on  a  horse  that  was 
frightfully  mutilated.  The  general  retired  to  Glasgow,  whither 
he  was  pursued  by  the  insurgents ;  though,  when  they  ventured 
to  attack  that  city,  they  were  repulsed.  Deeming  his  position, 
however,  not  a  strong  one,  Claverhouse  retreated  from  Glasgow  to 
the  main  army  at  Sterling. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  covenanters  took  up  a  position  near  to 
Bothwell-bridge,  where  they  were  numerously  joined  by  those  who 


Christ's  crown  and  covenant.  303 

were  terrified  by  the  recent  proclamations.  The  insurgent  body 
now  consisted  of  two  parties  :  the  Cameronians  —  so  called  from 
Richard  Cameron,  a  bold  protester  against  all  compliances  —  and 
the  Erastians  —  as  they  were  scornfully  termed  by  their  brethren, 
who  held  the  lawfulness  of  the  interference  of  the  civil  magistrate 
in  matters  of  religion.  Hamilton  was  the  leader  of  the  former 
party ;  John  Walsh,  a  presbyterian  minister,  of  the  other.  Un- 
happily, the  most  serious  differences  prevailed  between  these 
factions ;  and,  at  a  time  when  the  utmost  concentration  of  their 
forces  was  necessary,  the  insurgents  spent  their  time  in  debate  and 
discord  amongst  themselves. 

This  historical  summary,  necessary  to  put  the  reader  in  posses- 
sion of  the  facts  which  give  interest  to  the  scene,  ought  to  be  in 
the  mind  of  every  tourist  who  visits  "  Bothwell-brigg," 

The  court  of  London  had  sent  down  the  Duke  of  Monmouth, 
Charles'  natural  son,  and  one  who,  among  the  royalists  of  that 
day,  had  some  touch  of  pity  in  his  breast,  to  take  command  of  the 
king's  forces  against  the  insurgents.  This  measure,  extremely 
distasteful  to  the  privy  council  of  Scotland,  may  be  regarded  as 
an  indication  that  the  king  was  growing  somewhat  weary  of  the 
internecine  strife,  and  was  desirous  of  being,  according  to  his 
own  phrase,  monarch  of  the  whole  nation,  and  not  of  a  mere 
party.  The  Scottish  ministers  of  state  contrived,  however,  to  get 
Dalzell  appointed  as  the  duke's  lieutenant,  that  he  might  check 
the  movements  they  could  not  openly  oppose.  On  the  18th  of 
June,  1679,  Monmouth  arrived  at  Edinburgh,  whence  he  marched 
slowly  towards  Hamilton.  His  tardiness  was  occasioned  by  his 
desire  to  receive  overtures  of  peace  from  the  insurgents.  Two 
days  after  he  left  Edinburgh,  an  order  reached  the  duke  to  pro- 
ceed instantly  with  all  the  extremities  of  war.  On  Sunday,  the 
22d,  the  opposing  forces  were  almost  within  view  of  each  other ; 
the  advanced  guards  of  the  duke  being  at  Bothwell,  and  the  insur- 
gents on  Hamilton  Moor,  with  a  detachment  posted  at  Bothwell- 
bridge.  The  insurgents  had  resolved,  after  a  stormy  discussion, 
to  send  a  statement  of  their  grievances  to   Monmouth.     But  this 


304  Christ's  crown  and  covenant. 

resolution  had  not  been  arrived  at  without  a  strenuous  opposition ; 
and  so  violent  had  been  the  dispute,  that  Hamilton,  their  general, 
with  several  of  his  supporters,  had  altogether  withdrawn  them- 
selves from  the  deliberations.  The  petition,  begging  for  the  free 
exercise  of  their  religion,  and  for  the  speedy  summoning  of  the 
General  Assembly,  was  presented  to  the  duke,  who  replied  by 
requiring,  as  a  preliminary  condition,  that  they  should  lay  down 
their  arms,  —  on  doing  which,  he  promised  that  he  would  intercede 
with  the  king  in  their  favor.  Half  an  hour  was  allowed  for  the 
fulfilment  of  the  condition.  The  messengers  returned  to  the 
insurgents ;  but  the  only  result  was  the  renewal  of  the  former 
altercations. 

The  river  Clyde,  at  Both  well,  runs  between  considerably  sloping 
banks,  more  steep  on  the  side  of  the  village  of  Bothwell  than  on 
the  opposite  side,  on  which  the  insurgent  army  was  posted.  The 
stream  is  here  so  deep  and  broad  as  to  forbid  the  advance  of 
troops  in  the  teeth  of  an  armed  force,  except  by  means  of  the 
bridge  itself.  The  king's  army  posted  themselves  on  the  heights 
of  Bothwell,  and  thus  held  a  commanding  position.  They  were, 
besides,  greatly  superior  in  the  force  of  their  artillery.  They  first 
made  an  attack  on  the  bridge,  which  was  at  that  time  crowned  by 
a  gateway,  barricaded  by  stones  and  timber,  and  vigorously  de- 
fended by  Hackstone  of  Rathillet.  But  the  insurgents  were 
deficient  in  ammunition,  and  the  supply  they  had  was  soon  ex- 
hausted. They  sent  to  the  main  army  a  demand  for  more ;  but, 
instead  of  receiving  a  supply,  were  ordered  by  Hamilton  to  retire. 
This  was  wantonly  sacrificing  the  only  point  at  which  a  defence 
could  be  sustained.  Before  they  yielded  to  this  suicidal  command, 
they  swept  their  enemies  from  the  bridge,  as  if  to  demonstrate 
that,  had  means  and  appliances  been  left  to  them,  they  would  yet 
have  maintained  their  post.  But  retirement  became  inevitable, 
and  they  were  soon  compelled  to  join  the  main  body  of  the  insur- 
gent forces.  This  ended  the  defence ;  the  royal  troops,  unresisted, 
slowl  y  crossed  the  bridge,  and  defiled  before  their  stupefied  and 
DOW  resistless  victims.     In  a  moment  more,  the  rout  was  univer- 


Christ's  crown  and  covenant.  805 

sal:  Claverhoiise  and  his  soldiers  attacked  the  insurgents  like 
demons.  Everywhere  was  disaster  and  dismay.  The  carnage 
was  fearful.  Four  hundred  men  were  killed,  almost  in  cold  blood. 
Twelve  hundred  were  taken  prisoners.  These  were  disarmed  and 
stripped,  commanded  to  lie  flat  on  the  ground,  and  forbidden  to 
change  their  posture.  He  who  raised  his  head,  even  for  an  instant, 
was  shot  dead.  A  person  named  William  Gordon,  who  was  igno- 
rant of  the  disasters  of  his  party,  while  hastening  to  join  them, 
was  slain  on  the  spot.  Others,  who  had  sought  the  camp  in  the 
hope  of  hearing  a  sermon,  were  killed.  A  man,  because  he  was 
found  reading  the  Bible,  was  cloven  through  the  skull.  The  sur- 
viving prisoners  were  marched  to  Edinburgh,  where  they  were 
imprisoned  in  the  inner  Greyfriars  church-yard,  lying  at  night  on 
the  ground,  and  standing  during  the  day,  for  a  period  of  five 
months.  If,  in  the  course  of  the  night,  a  prisoner  lifted  his  head, 
he  was  instantly  fired  upon.  Provisions  were  obtained  with  ex- 
treme difficulty ;  and  the  women  sufiered  all  kinds  of  insult  from 
the  soldiers,  by  whom  they  were  continually  guarded.  After 
they  had  thus  occupied  this  church-yard  for  nearly  five  months, 
a  few  rough  deal  boards  were  erected  for  their  accommodation, 
which  was  regarded  as  a  special  favor.  Some  of  these  prisoners 
were  liberated,  on  a  promise  not  to  take  arms  without  the  king's 
leave.  But  two  hundred  and  fifty,  who  refused  to  take  the  bond, 
were  ordered  to  be  transported  to  Barbadoes,  and  sold  as  slaves. 
The  vessel  was  wrecked  on  the  Orkney  Islands,  and  most  of  them 
perished.^ 

The  insurgents  who  escaped  the  furious  onslaught  of  Claver- 
house  at  Both  well  were  immediately  proclaimed  rebels;  and, 
though  the  Duke  of  Monmouth  published  a  promise  of  amnesty  to 
those  tenants  and  sub-tenants  who  should  lay  down  their  arms  by 
a  prescribed  day,  few  dared  to  trust  themselves  in  the  hands  of  the 
magistrates.  Claverhouse  now  began  a  course  of  proscription  and 
extermination.     Marching  into  Galloway,  he  tracked  all  who  had 

•  Memoirs  of  Rev.  J.  Blackader. 

26^ 


306  *  Christ's  crown  and  covenant. 

been,  or  might  have  been,  at  Bothwell-bridge,  seizing  their  horses, 
plundering  their  persons,  and  committing  himself,  as  well  as  toler- 
ating in  his  soldiers,  every  kind  of  outrage  and  debauchery. 

Even  Claverhouse's  mind,  hardened  as  it  was,  was  not  unsus- 
ceptible of  remorse.  He  confessed  to  some  of  his  friends  that  the 
dying  prayer  of  some  of  his  victims  often  rose  up  before  his 
thoughts  ;  and  this  was,  perhaps,  the  cause  of  his  being  more  slow 
than  usual  in  committing  a  similar  murder  about  ten  days  after. 
"  In  one  of  his  expeditions  he  seized  Andrew  Hislop,  and  carried 
him  prisoner  along  with  him  to  the  house  of  Sir  James  Johnston 
of  Wester-raw,  without  any  design,  as  it  would  appear,  to  put 
him  to  death.  As  Hislop  was  taken  on  his  lands,  Wester-raw 
insisted  on  passing  sentence  of  death  on  him.  Claverhouse 
opposed  this,  and  pressed  a  delay  of  the  execution ;  but  his  host 
urging  him,  he  yielded,  saying,  '  The  blood  of  this  poor  man  be 
on  you.  Wester-raw  ;  I  am  free  of  it."  A  Highland  gentleman, 
who  was  traversing  the  country,  having  come  that  way  with  a  com- 
pany of  soldiers,  Claverhouse  meanly  endeavored  to  make  him  the 
executioner  of  Wester-raw's  sentence  ;  but  that  gentleman,  having 
more  humanity  and  a  higher  sense  of  honor,  drew  off  his  men  to 
some  distance,  and  swore  that  he  would  fight  Colonel  Graham 
sooner  than  perform  such  an  ofl&ce.  Upon  this,  Claverhouse 
ordered  three  of  his  own  soldiers  to  do  it.  When  they  were 
ready  to  fire,  they  desired  Hislop  to  draw  his  bonnet  over  his 
face ;  but  he  refused,  telling  them  that  he  had  done  nothing  of 
which  he  had  reason  to  be  ashamed,  and  could  look  them  in  the 
face  without  fear ;  —  and,  holding  up  his  Bible  in  one  of  his  hands, 
and  reminding  them  of  the  account  which  they  had  to  render,  he 
received  the  contents  of  their  muskets  in  his  body."  ^ 

It  is  said  that  Claverhouse,  in  his  expeditions  up  and  down  the 
country,  subsequently  to  the  battle  of  Bothwell-bridge,  killed 
nearly  a  hundred  persons  in  cold  blood,  amidst  varied  circum- 
stances of  licentiousness  and  atrocity.     For  such  services  he  was 

*  M'Crie's  Covenanters. 


Christ's  crown  and  covenant.  307 

created  Viscount  Dundee,  and  made  a  privy-councillor.  He  was 
ardent  in  the  cause  of  James  II.  till  he  met  with  his  death  at  the 
battle  of  Killiecrankie.  He  fell  with  a  violent  imprecation  on  his 
lips. 

Every  tourist  in  Scotland  is  familiar  with  the  wide  estuary 
called  the  Frith  of  Froth,  which  constitutes  the  ocean  highway  to 
Edinburgh  and  the  heart  of  Scotland.  The  most  cursory  view  of 
the  shores  must  have  made  hiin  acquainted  with  a  steep,  abrupt 
mountain,  which  rises  up  at  its  entrance,  like  some  huge  natural 
pyramid,  and  which  bears  the  name  of  Berwick-law,  because 
offenders  were  anciently  executed  upon  its  summit.  About  three 
miles  to  the  east  stand  the  massive  towers  of  the  ancient  castle 
of  Tantallon,  on  the  edge  of  a  promontor}''  inaccessible  on  the  sea- 
side, and  only  united  to  the  land  by  a  narrow  isthmus,  once  the 
seat  of  "  the  noble  Lord  of  Douglas  blood,"  but  destroyed  for  its 
adherence  to  the  royal  cause  in  the  days  of  Charles  I.  The  poem 
"  Marmion  "  contains  its  best  description  : 

"  I  said  Tantallon 's  dizzy  steep 
Hung  o'er  the  margin  of  the  deep, 
And  many  a  tower  and  rampart  there 
Repelled  the  insult  of  the  air  ; 
Which,  when  the  tempest  vexed  the  sky, 
Half  breeze,  half  spray,  came  whistling  by. 

*  *  *  n. 

Above  the  booming  ocean  leant 
The  far-projecting  battlement ; 
The  billows  burst  in  ceaseless  flow 
Deep  on  the  precipice  below  ; 
And  steepy  rock  and  frantic  tide 
Approach  of  human  step  defied." 

But  the  object  of  my  principal  attention,  when  I  last  visited 
the  spot,  was  neither  Berwick-law  nor  Tantallon  Castle.  Some 
of  those  misadventures  to  which  railway  travellers  are  subject  had 
caused  me  to  leave  my  route,  and  to  walk  across  from  Linton  to 
North  Ber\iick.     It  wa^  a  very  wet  and  altogether  unpropitious 


308  Christ's  crown  and  covenant. 

morning  ;  and,  as  is  usual  in  such  cases,  it  seemed  as  if  the  desired 
point  would  never  be  attained.  At  length,  from  the  distance  I 
had  walked,  I  hoped  I  was  nearing  the  end  of  my  journey,  when 
I  happily  met  a  passenger,  —  almost  the  only  one  whom,  on  that 
morning,  it  had  been  my  good  fortune  to  encounter.  "  How  far  is 
it  to  North  Berwick  ?  "  "  How  far  is  it  ?  I  cannot  justly  tell  ye, 
—  ye  '11  be  near  aboot  half  waa."  The  best  consolation  under  the 
disappointment  was,  that  the  rain  was  now  beginning  to  abate,  and 
there  was  the  hope  that,  by  the  time  the  rest  of  the  journey  was 
traversed,  I  might  obtain  a  favorable  view  of  that  which  I  had 
travelled  so  far  to  see.  So,  in  view  of  hard  rocks,  but  with  feet 
upon  the  softest  roads  conceivable,  I  trudged  on  over  a  country  in 
the  highest  degree  uninteresting,  near  to  the  sea ;  which  was,  how- 
ever, from  no  point  visible,  though  now  and  then  a  few  sea-gulls 
saluted  me  with  their  unfamiliar  screams.  At  length  the  sun 
caught  the  top  of  Berwick-law,  and  the  scene  began  to  brighten, 
especially  when,  soon  after,  I  became  aware  of  the  vicinity  of  the 
object  of  which  I  was  in  search. 

The  ascent  of  the  hill  speedily  rewarded  my  expectations. 
From  its  summit  a  lovely  scene  presented  itself.  On  my  right, 
constituting  a  huge  foreground,  was  Berwick-law,  a  spot  cele- 
brated, in  the  annals  of  witchcraft,  for  the  executions  which  took 
place  upon  it.  On  the  left  was  the  ancient  and  English-looking 
village  of  North  Berwick,  snugly  shut  in  by  cliffs  and  hills.  Be- 
fore me  was  a  considerable  expanse  of  cultivated  land;  and 
beyond,  at  some  little  distance  out  at  sea,  surrounded  on  all  sides 
by  the  magnificent  ocean,  was  the  Bass  rock,  deriving  its  name 
probably  from  a  bass  or  hassock,  —  what  in  Yorkshire  would  be 
termed  a  buffet,  to  which  it  bears  considerable  resemblance,  —  a 
huge  mass  rising  suddenly  from  the  waters,  and  thrown  up  evi- 
dently in  one  of  nature's  most  heaving  convulsions.  This  little 
but  very  remarkable  natural  phenomenon  has  a  history ;  and  it  is 
one  of  unusuai  interest.  During  the  wars  between  the  Scots  and 
Picts  it  was  inhabited  by  one  of  the  crowd  of  ancient  saints,  who 
was  called  St.  Bald  ed.     He  is  said  to  have  been  a  successor  of 


Christ's  crown  and  covenant.  309 

St.  Mungo,  and  was,  perhaps,  a  Culdee  presbyter,  residing  here 
for  safety  from  persecution.  It  is  even  reported  that  he  miracu- 
lously caused  this  remarkable  rock  to  rise  up  from  the  waves.  The 
tradition  is,  at  least,  as  good  as  many  others  of  a  much  later  pe- 
riod, and  quite  as  authentic  as  many  of  the  tales  told  of  the  puri- 
tans about  the  time  of  which  we  are  now  writing.  To  the  honor 
of  this  somewhat  apocryphal  saint  a  chapel  was  at  a  later  period 
erected  by  Cardinal  Beaton,  which  was  occasionally  used  as  a  place 
of  prayer  till  the  Reformation.  The  rock  afforded  a  temporary 
protection  to  Robert  III.,  before  his  captivity  by  the  English. 
Walter  Stewart,  son  of  the  Duke  of  Albany,  was  imprisoned  here. 
James  VI.  paid  a  visit  to  it  in  1581,  and  the  accounts  of  his  treas- 
urer include  the  following  item  :  "To  Alexander  Young,  his  hienes 
servitour  for  his  grace's  extraordinar  expenses  in  his  jornay  towardis 
the  Bass,  conforme  to  his  hienes  precept,  as  the  samin  with  his 
acquittance  producit  upon  compt  proportis  XL.  li."  (Forty 
pounds).^  James  even  desired,  it  appears,  to  purchase  it  of  its 
then  possessor,  —  one  of  the  Landers,  —  offering  him  whatever  he 
pleased  to  ask  for  it.  Lauder  replied,  "  Your  majesty  must  e'en 
resign  it  to  me,  for  I  '11  have  the  auld  crag  back  again."  Charles 
I.  claimed  it,  on  what  ground  docs  not  appear,  nor  does  the  claim 
seem  to  have  been  successful.  When  Cromwell  invaded  Scotland, 
in  1650,  the  public  records  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  were  con- 
signed to  this  fastness,  which,  however,  soon  after  fell  into  the 
hands  of  that  victorious  general,  who  conveyed  them  in  casks  to 
London.  At  the  restoration,  they  were  ordered  to  be  returned. 
But  Lauderdale,  believing  that  the  covenant  and  other  papers 
signed  by  the  king  were  among  the  documents,  detained  them  till 
search  should  be  made.  Not  being  found,  fifty  hogsheads  were 
charged  with  them,  and  they  were  sent  back  to  Scotland.  But  so 
much  time  had  been  lost,  that  the  season  became  stormy  before 
they  could  be  transported.  The  ship  was  cast  away  at  Berwick, 
and  the  papers  were  most  of  them  lost.t     After  a  second  removal, 

*  "  The  Bass  Rock. "    Edinburgh,  1848. 
t  Burnet's  Own  Times,  vol.  i.,  p.  110. 


310  Christ's  crown  and  covenant. 

the  remnants  were  again  brought  to  London,  on  the  occasion  of  the 
recent  disruption  of  the  Scottish  church  ;  but  only  to  be  consumed 
by  fire  in  the  House  of  Commons,  in  1834. 

When,  after  the  restoration,  the  jails  of  Scotland  were  crowded 
with  the  victims  of  the  sanguinary  persecutions  which  preceded 
and  followed  the  battle  of  Both  well-bridge,  the  Bass  rock  was  pur- 
chased by  Lord  Lauderdale,  on  behalf  of  the  government,  at  the 
price  of  four  thousand  pounds,  as  a  state-prison ;  himself  being 
appointed  to  the  undying  disgrace  of  governor  of  the  Bass,  with  a 
salary  of  one  hundred  pounds  per  annum.  It  was  now  made  a 
prison  for  presbyterian  ministers,  and  underwent  such  changes  as 
were  necessary  to  fit  it  for  its  new  destination. 

It  is  a  beautiful  walk  which  leads  along  the  shores  of  the  Frith 
of  Forth,  from  the  town  of  North  Berwick  to  that  part  of  the 
coast  which  lies  opposite  to  this  singular  rock.  Were  the  charms 
of  the  scene  better  known  to  English  tourists,  it  would  certainly 
be  more  frequently  visited.  A  wide  expanse  of  sand,  of  the 
whitest  and  firmest  kind,  spotted  here  and  there  with  beautiful 
limpet  shells,  constitutes  a  level  esplanade,  of  about  a  mile  in 
length,  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  town;  whilst  within  view  are 
the  broad  waters  of  the  Forth,  bearing  numerous  vessels  on  their 
bosom ;  and,  on  the  opposite  side,  the  coasts  of  Fife,  diminishing 
away  in  the  distance  as  the  estuary  grows  wider,  till  the  observer 
scarcely  knows  whether  his  eye  can  discern  the  distant  shore  or 
not.  Beyond  this  esplanade  the  rocks  rise  more  precipitously, 
commanding  a  majestic  view  of  the  wide  German  ocean,  heaving 
its  faint  blue  tide,  as  if  with  the  pulses  which  carry  life  and 
health  through  the  terraqueous  system.  Then,  after  a  shcrt  dis- 
tance, the  rocks  subside  again  into  a  beautiful  and  quiet  inlet, 
called  Canty  Bay,  and  immediately  opposite  stands  the  hoary  rock 
itself,  not  near  enough  to  the  land  to  be  discernible  as  to  its  mi- 
nuter features,  but  leaving  sufficiently  evident  to  the  eye  the  rem- 
nants of  its  ancient  and  time-worn  structures.  Strange  is  the 
appearance  of  this  crimeless  prison  !  The  steep  slope  of  its  upper 
surface  gives  a  sensation  of  the  uncomfortable,  as  if  it  were  impos- 


Christ's  crown  and  covenant.  311 

sible  that  a  living  being  could  find  a  secure  footing  upon  so  shelv- 
ing a  surface.  Its  distance  from  the  shore  renders  escape  almost 
hopeless.  It  is  not  possible  to  reach  the  spot  in  a  storm.  There 
is  but  one  place  of  landing ;  and  of  any  herbage,  besides  the  grass 
which  grows  on  its  top,  there  is  now  no  vestige  remaining.  No- 
where else  can  the  spectator  realize  a  more  vivid  conception  of 
utter  solitude ! 


BASS   ROCK,  FROM   CANTY  BAY. 

A.  more  miserable  and  forlorn  prison-house  than  this  of  the  Bass 
rock  it  is  impossible  to  conceive.  With  no  fresh  water,  —  for  the 
water  to  be  found  on  the  island  was  often  corrupted,  and  the  pris- 
oners were  obliged  to  mix  it  with  oat-meal  before  it  could  be  drunk, 
—  washed  at  times  by  the  spray  from  the  boiling  ocean  below,  and 
exposed  to  the  damps  which  arose  from  the  water  drizzling  down 
from  the  pent-house  surface  above ;  in  narrow  and  inconvenient 
rooms,  some  of  them  lighted  by  slits  far  above  their  heads  ;  liable, 
from  the  situation  of  the  prisons,  to  have  their  movements  watched, 
their  sufferings  insulted,  and  their  conversation  overheard;  the 
rooms  ordinarily  so  full  of  smoke  as  to  compel  them  sometimes  to 
put  their  head  and  shoulders  out  of  the  window,  in  order  to  draw 


312  Christ's  crown  and  covenant. 

fresh  air ;  exposed  to  the  fierceness  of  every  wind  that  blew ; 
oftea  in  want  of  provisions,  which,  in  stormy  weather,  could  not  be 
landed  ;  far  from  friends  and  home,  —  more  than  forty  poor  suf- 
ferers were  incarcerated,  some  for  a  period  of  six  years.  Some 
miserable  consolation  might  be  derived  from  beholding  —  when 
they  were  permitted  to  behold  it  —  the  glorious  scene  of  nature's 
loveliness  which  spread  itself  on  every  hand  around  them.  The 
"  highway  of  nations  "  around,  or  the  bright  heavens  above,  —  the 
changes  of  atmosphere,  the  glorious  sunrise  or  sunset,  the  dark- 
ening storm,  —  all  would  have  their  attractions  in  such  a  Pat- 
mos.  They  could  look  at  Tantallon,  but  in  the  tales  of  its  wild 
chivalry  and  fierce  warfare  there  was  little  to  touch  their  sym- 
pathies. Berwick-law  rose  up  near  them,  but  naked,  stern  and 
forbidding,  presenting  to  them  no  idea  of  sympathetic  life.  The 
eye  could  wander  on  to  the  huge  crags  which  marked  the  distant 
Arthur's  Ssat,  perhaps  to  think  that,  within  the  privy-council 
chamber,  at  the  base  of  those  hills,  some  poor  victim  whom  they 
knew  was  at  that  moment  undergoing  the  torture  so  dreadfully 
familiar  to  themselves ;  the  more  smiling  coast  of  Fife  presented 
its  singular  and  picturesque  undulations  to  their  view,  but  far,  far 
away ;  many  of  them  could  look  from  that  prison  fastness  upon 
the  locality  of  their  homes  and  their  ministry,  only  to  lament  a 
denounced  religion  and  an  outraged  covenant.  What  could  com- 
fort them  ?     Nothing,  but  gospel  truth  and  a  good  conscience. 

"  He  that  hath  light  within  his  own  pure  breast 
Can  sit  i'  the  centre  and  enjoy  bright  day  ; 
But  he  who  hides  a  dark  breast  and  foul  thoughts 
Benighted  walks  beneath  the  noon-day  sun  : 
Himself  is  his  own  dungeon."  —  Milton,  Comus. 

The  following  is  the  testimony  of  one  of  the  prisoners  :  —  "  Every 
day  I  read  the  Scriptures,  exhorted  and  taught  therefrom,  and 
prayed  with  such  of  our  society  as  our  masters  did  permit  to  wor- 
ship God  together,  and  this  two  times  a  day.  I  studied  Hebrew 
and  Greek,  and  gained  some  knowledge  in  these  oriental  languages. 


Christ's  crown  and  covenant.  313 

I  likewise  read  some  divinity,  and  wrote  a  treatise  on  faith,  with 
other  miscellanies,  and  wrote  some  letters  to  Christian  friends  and 
relations.  Thus  I  spent  ray  time,  and  not  without  some  fruit." 
Another  said,  "  I  have  the  experience  of  that  saying,  '  Tanta  est 
didcedo  celestis  gaudily  ut  si  una  guttula  dejlueret  in  infernum, 
totam  amaritudinem  inferni  absorberet.''  "  ^ 


BASS   ROCK,   NEAR  VIEW. 

So  long  as  time  shall  endure,  the  Bass  rock  will  remain  an 
imperishable  monument  to  John  Earl  of  Lauderdale.t 

Here  was  imprisoned  Robert  Gillespie,  who  had  opened  a  con- 
venticle and  preached  without  license  and  without  lawful  ordina- 
tion. He  was  kept  for  a  time  totally  secluded  from  all  intercourse 
with  his  friends,  though,  latterly,  the  injunction  was  relaxed. 
Here,  too,  was  found  Alexander  Peden,  once  minister  of  Glenluce, 
in  Galloway,  but  prohibited  by  the  Scottish  act  of  parliament  from 
exeroising  his   ministerial  functions.     He  joined  the  covenanters, 

*  Such  is  the  sweetness  of  the  joy  of  heaven,  that  if  the  least  drop  of  it  were 
to  flow  into  hell,  it  would  absorb  all  its  bitterness. 

f  "  Quod  non  imber  edax,  non  jiquilo  impotens 
Possit  diruere,  aut  innumerabilis 
Annorum  series,  et  fuga  temporum.  "  —  i/br,  Car.  1.  ili, 

27 


314  Christ's  crown  and  covenant. 

and  although  he  parted  from  them  before  they  proceeded  to  tht 
fight  of  the  Pentland-hills,  was  yet  proceeded  against  as  if  he  had 
been  actually  present  at  that  battle.  He  was  probably  confined  in 
this  prison  during  four  years.  A  singular  circumstance  marked  his 
history  in  this  spot.  One  day,  a  soldier  passing  by  him  cried  out, 
"  The  devil  take  him  !  "  Peden,  who  spoke  with  authority,  said, 
"  Poor  man  !  thou  knowest  not  what  thou  art  saying;  but  thou 
wilt  repent  that !  "  The  soldier  was  terrified,  and  sent  for  Peden 
to  pray  with  him.  When  next  it  was  his  turn  to  relieve  guard, 
he  said,  "  I  will  lift  no  arms  against  Jesus  Christ's  cause,  nor  per- 
secute his  people  ;  I  have  done  that  too  long."  He  was  threat- 
ened with  death ;  but  he  persisted  in  his  refusal.  The  garrison 
were  compelled  to  send  him  on  shore.  He  afterwards  became  an 
exemplary  Christian.  Even  this  prison  was  no  security  against 
such  influences.  The  history  of  Peden's  future  career  was  full 
of  remarkable  incidents,  which  we  must  not  stay  to  relate.  Within 
these  walls  was  also  found  James  Mitchell,  who  made  an  unsuc- 
cessful attempt  upon  the  life  of  Archbishop  Sharp,  which  he  justified 
by  passages  of  Old  Testament  history.  He  was  apprehended  by 
the  brother  of  the  primate.  In  order  to  extort  a  confession  from 
him.  Sharp  swore  "  with  uplifted  hands,  by  the  living  God,  that 
no  harm  should  befall  him  if  he  made  a  full  discovery."  By 
authority  of  Lauderdale,  also,  his  life  was  promised  him  on  a  sim- 
ilar condition.  He  confessed,  and  subscribed  the  confession,  and 
was  sentenced  to  have  his  right  hand  cut  off.  But,  as  he  refused  to 
repeat  this  acknowledgment  before  the  court  of  justiciary,  which 
was  necessary  to  his  punishment,  the  prosecutors  pleaded  that  they 
were  exempt  from  their  promise.  He  was  sentenced,  therefore,  to 
be  examined  by  torture.  The  horrible  instrument  called  the 
"  boots  "  was  brought  forward.  This  consisted  of  several  pieces 
of  wood  firmly  fixed  together,  leaving  an  aperture  for  the  reception 
of  the  leg  of  the  accused.  When  it  was  thus  fitted  on,  wedges 
were  violently  driven  with  a  mallet  between  the  boot  and  the  leg, 
which,  compressing  the  shin-bone,  caused  the  most  exquisite  suf- 
fering.    He  ^s'as  bound  in  an  arm-chair,  and  asked  which  leg 


Christ's  crown  and  covenant.  315 

should  be  taken,  The  executioner  was  commanded  to  take  either, 
and  the  left  leg  was  inserted.  But  Mitchell  lifted  it  out,  and  said, 
"Since  the  judges  have  not  determined  it,  take  the  best  of  the 
two,  for  I  freely  bestow  it  in  the  cause,"  and  he  put  in  the  other 
leg.  As  stroke  after  stroke  descended,  questions  were  put  to  the 
prisoner,  and  the  answers  written  down.  But  nothing  satisfac- 
tory was  elicited.  At  last,  the  prisoner  fainted,  and  was  borne 
off.  It  was  proposed  to  proceed  with  the  other  leg,  but  the  inten- 
tion was  abandoned,  through  the  fears  of  Sharp  that  he  should 
have  a  shot  from  a  steadier  hand.  At  length,  after  much  impris- 
onment, —  partly  on  the  Bass  rock,  —  he  was  tried  for  the  at- 
tempted assassination.  The  principal  evidence  was  derived  from 
his  own  confession,  made  four  years  previously.  In  vain  did 
Mitchell  plead  the  promise  under  which  that  confession  had  been 
made.  It  was  solemnly  denied,  even  by  Lord  Lauderdale  and  Sharp. 
When,  on  his  trial,  Mitchell's  counsel  asked  for  the  production  of 
the  minutes  which  contained  the  promise  under  which  the  confes- 
sion had  been  made,  the  request  was  denied,  upon  the  plea,  which 
Lauderdale  was  not  ashamed  to  urge,  that  the  books  of  the  council 
were  the  king's  secret !  Mitchell  was  sentenced  to  be  hanged  at 
the  Grass-market.  When  the  court  broke  up,  the  lords  of  the 
privy-council  referred  to  the  records,  and  there  found  the  promise 
made  to  Mitchell  which  they  had  just  denied.  For  a  moment 
Lauderdale  wavered,  and  seemed  inclined  to  grant  a  reprieve.  But 
Sharp  was  resolute.  "  Then,"  said  Lauderdale,  "  let  Mitchell 
glorify  God  in  the  Grass-market ! "  Bishop  Burnet  gives  the 
unexceptionable  authority  of  Primrose,  the  clerk-register,  for  this 
statement.  It  was  this  conduct  of  Sharp  which,  probably,  led  to 
his  death,  two  years  after,  as  we  have  related.  Mitchell  was  exe- 
cuted,  and  died  with  the  heroism  of  a  martyr.  This  attempted 
assassination  exhibits  the  stern  ferocity  engendered  by  the  Scottish 
covenant,  and  the  inflexible  firmness  of  some  who  were  bound  by 
its  provisions.  We  honor  conscience ;  but  conscience  and  law  are 
not  identical.  The  men  acted  as  they  believed  ;  but  their  belief  was 
not  founded  upon  what  was  written.     Mitchell  originally  deserved 


316  Christ's  crown  and  covenant. 

to  die ;  but  no  words  can  express  the  sentiments  due  to  the  treach- 
ery, barbarity  and  infamy,  of  those  who  condemned  him."^ 

The  close. of  Blackader's  labors  bore  a  singular  relation  to  the 
scene  of  his  imprisonment.  Ten  days  before  his  apprehension  he 
had  preached  on  a  hill  opposite  to  the  Bass  rock,  and  had  prayed 
with  special  energy  for  those  who  were  imprisoned  in  that  desolate 
fortress.  Soon  after  he  was  seized  in  Edinburgh,  and  himself 
received  a  similar  sentence.  Here  he  died,  aged  seventy.  His 
prison  is  still  to  be  seen,  and  a  tombstone  in  the  church-yard  of 
North  Berwick  marks  the  spot  of  his  interment.! 

The  account  given  in  this  chapter  of  the  martyrs  of  the  covenant 
has  been  brief  and  imperfect.  The  reader  may  find  the  whole 
series  of  transactions  in  Burnet's  History  of  his  Own  Time,  the 
volume  entitled  "  The  Bass  Rock,"  &c. 

None  can  fail  to  regard  the  league  and  covenant  with  solem- 
nity, when  he  recalls  the  events  of  its  dismal  history.  But  as  a 
matter  of  legislation  it  was  "  a  mockery,  a  delusion,  and  a  snare." 
If  it  were  lawful  for  presbyterians  to  sharpen  swords  against  pre- 
lacy, it  was  by  the  same  rule  lawful  for  the  adherents  of  prelacy 
to  turn  the  sword  so  sharpened  against  those  who  had  prepared 
it.  The  principle  announced  by  Castalio,  whom  Calvin  bitterly 
opposed,  is  clear  and  intelligible :  —  "  Let  us  obey  the  righteous 

*  Yet  on  Sharp's  monument  is  this  inscription:  —  "  Pietatis  exemplum; 
pacis  angelum;  sapientiae  oraculum ;  gravitatis  imaginem ;  boni  et  fidelis  sub- 
diti,  impietatis,  perduellonis,  et  schismaticis  hostem  acerrimum,"  &c.  It  is 
well  that  marble  cannot  blush.  The  latter  clause  is  all  of  the  inscription  which 
is  true.  When  this  monument  was  opened,  a  few  years  since,  it  was  found 
empty.     It  is  conjectured  that  it  was  opened  in  search  of  treasure. 

t  The  Bass  rock  is  now  abandoned  to  Solan  geese,  which  it  harbors  in  great 
abundance,  and  to  a  few  sheep,  the  flesh  of  which  is  in  great  request;  some 
butchers  have  been  known  to  boast  of  selling  five  times  as  much  Bass  wether 
mutton  as  the  rock  can  by  possibility  sustain.  Of  the  former,  Defoe  says, 
"  Their  laying  but  one  egg,  which  sticks  to  the  rock,  and  will  not  fall  off  un- 
less pulled  off  by  force,  and  then  not  to  be  stuck  on  again,  though  we  thought 
them  fictions,  yet,  being  there  at  the  season,  we  found  true,  as  also  their  hatch- 
ing upholding  the  egg  fast  by  the  foot."  AVhatever  the  means  Defoe  might 
have  taken  to  verify  the  reports,  they  are  only  fictions. 


Christ's  crown  and  covenant.  317 

Judge,  and  leave  the  tares  till  the  harvest,  lest,  perchance  (whilst 
we  seek  to  be  wiser  than  the  Master),  we  root  up  the  wheat.  For 
neither  is  it  yet  the  end  of  the  world,  nor  are  we  angels  to  whom 
this  office  has  been  intrusted."  ^  Good  men  as  they  were,  Gilles- 
pie, Henderson,  Baillie,  and  the  numerous  ministers  of  London, 
Lancashire  and  Chester,  who  swore  by  the  directory,  were  scarcely 
angels ;  nor  were  they  prone  to  think  that  name  deserved  by  Crom- 
well, Milton,  Goodwin,  Owen,  and  the  host  of  sectaries.  And 
deeply  di4  they  feel,  under  the  terrible  retribution  which  followed, 
that  Charles  II.,  Monk,  Sharp,  Lauderdale,  Middleton,  were  no 

angels ! 

♦Bib.  Sac,  pp.  xi.,  xii. 


THUMBSCREWS. 

21* 


CHAPTER    X. 


APPEARING   IN    TRUE   COLORS. 

*♦  Were  I  now  to  preach  before  a  great  magistrate  that  had  the  power  in 
his  hands,  I  would  say,  My  lord,  you  bear  not  the  sword  in  vain.  Let  them  be 
fined  and  imprisoned,  —  nay,  hanged,  my  lord.  Now,  if  my  lord  should  say, 
Do  you  endeavor  to  refute  and  convince  them  of  their  errors  by  sound  doctrine 
and  good  example  of  life  ;  then  would  I  say.  No,  my  lord,  they  will  never  be 
convinced  by  us,  for  we  have  not  wit  or  learning  enough  to  do  it,  neither  can  we 
take  so  much  pains.  It  is  easier  to  talk  an  hour  about  state  affairs  than  to 
preach  convincing  and  sound  doctrine.  The  fanatics,  therefore,  must  be  con- 
futed by  bolts  and  shackles  ;  by  fines  and  imprisonments  ;  by  excommunica- 
tions and  exterminations  ;  and,  therefore,  my  lord,  let  them  be  scourged  out 
of  the  temple  :  let  them  be  whipped  out  of  the  nation."  —  Speculum  Crape 
govmorum,*  by  D.  Defoe. 

HERE  are  few  more  interesting  chapters 
in  the  miscellaneous  volume  of  human 
life  than  those  which  describe  the  man- 
ner in  which  some  men  have  "  achieved 
greatness."  The  case  of  a  single  indi- 
vidual whom  we  desire  to  recall  to  the 
mind  of  the  reader  may  stand  as  an 
illustration  of  some  of  these  phenomena. 
Let  us  imagine,  in  a  secluded  village,  in 
a  flat  midland  county,  a  cottage  —  none 
of  the  best  —  built  in  the  antique  style 
of  wood  and  plaster,  with  a  steep  roof 
and  narrow  windows,  some  of  them  very  parsimonious  of  light  and 
air,  a  poor  but  honest  family,  deriving  their  daily  sustenance  from 

*  Crape  gowns  were  at  this  time  the  clerical  fashion  ;  a  fashion,  however, 
which  this  pamphlet  of  Defoe's  rendered  obsolete. 


ELSTOW  CHURCH. 


APPEARING  IN  TRUE  COLORS.  319 

the  mean  occupation  of  mending  pans  and  kettles,  mainly  desirous 
that  their  son  —  destined,  perhaps,  to  pursue  the  same  occupation  as 
themselves  —  should  possess  the  rudiments  of  a  decent  education, 
and  be  taught  —  what  few  of  their  class  then  possessed  —  the  art 
of  reading,  and  even  of  writing.  Let  it  be  supposed  that  this 
boy,  chubby,  red-haired,  and  burly  in  person,  gives,  as  he  advances 
in  years,  no  little  trouble  to  his  ignorant  but  well-meaning  parents. 
Strong,  masculine,  self-willed,  mischief  delights  him.  His  pas- 
sions, even  in  early  life,  are  strong  —  often  ungovernable.  He  is 
riotous  and  unruly ;  a  very  roysterer  among  his  young  acquaint- 
ance, who  are,  nevertheless,  attracted  to  him  by  some  indefinable 
charm,  and  delight  in  his  humor,  and  in  those  massive  or  barbed 
phrases  which  distinguished  his  very  vulgarity.  Yet  there  are 
times  in  which  this  prevalent  course  of  his  life  becomes  interrupted ; 
when  he  breaks  away  from  his  companions  and  plunges  into  soli- 
tude; when  some  unexplained  sadness  seems  to  bow  down  his 
mind ;  when  his  sleep  is  often  broken,  and  those  who  watch  his 
couch  can  observe  writhings  and  shudderings,  as  if  he  were  pos- 
sessed by  some  infernal  spirit.  He  grows  up  a  tall  and  powerful 
lad ;  and,  as  he  grows,  he  becomes  less  sad  and  more  jovial ;  a 
despiser  of  all  which  calls  itself  religion ;  a  captain  among  the 
gay  and  careless  ;  daring  beyond  all  ordinary  precedent ;  remark- 
able for  the  breadth  of  his  vulgarity  and  the  emphasis  of  his 
oaths. 

Such  a  disposition  naturally  impels  him  into  all  kinds  of  dan- 
gers ;  yet  his  preservations  are  all  but  miraculous.  His  compan- 
ions tell  of  his  hair-breadth  escapes  from  drowning  in  the  sea  and 
in  the  river ;  how  with  his  naked  hand  he  once  plucked  out  the 
forked  tongue  of  an  adder,  and  escaped  unhurt ;  how  he  afterwards 
enlisted  in  the  civil  wars,  and  changed  places  with  a  fellow-soldier, 
who  was  killed  in  his  stead.  When  in  a  state  of  extreme  poverty, 
—  a  poverty  greatly  increased  by  the  unsettled  life  he  had  led,  — 
he  marries,  though  destitute  alike  of  money  and  of  furniture,  with 
not  even  a  dish  or  a  spoon  which  he  could  call  his  own,  whilst  all 
the  fortune  of  his  wife  consists  in  two  books  left  her  by  her  father. 


320  APPEARING  IN  TRUE  COLORS. 

By  dint  of  reading  these,  he  is  seized  with  a  sudden  impulse ; 
bows  at  altars,  worship  priests,  believes  in  apostolical  succession, 
becomes  religious  just  as  a  machine  might  be,  whilst  his  soul  lies 
torpid  and  frozen  within.  It  is,  however,  but  the  fashion  of  a 
moment,  and  the  wound-up  spring  speedily  recovers  its  original 
shape.  On  the  village-green,  or  at  the  street  corner,  wherever 
the  idle  love  to  congregate,  there  is  he  to  be  found ;  sometimes 
prompting  their  mirth ;  sometimes  engaging  with  them  in  their 
games  of  pitch-halfpenny  or  quoits,  or  cat ;  not  despising  the  pub- 
lic house,  and  foremost  in  the  triple-bob  major  of  the  village  bel- 
fry. Yet  his  companions  think  him  somewhat  odd;  perhaps 
half-deranged.  A  sudden  spasm  will  sometimes  seize  him  in  the 
midst  of  a  game ;  he  will  stop,  and  seem  as  if  he  heard  strange 
voices,  and  then  resume  his  sport  as  if  possessed  with  a  demon  of 
desperation.  Then  his  frolics  will  become  more  boisterous,  his 
oaths  more  fearful,  till  even  the  irreligious  become  disgusted  with 
his  enormous  profanity. 

Another  change  comes  over  him.  He  is  grave  again.  He 
stands  at  the  outer  door  of  the  church-tower,  but  no  amount  of 
persuasion  can  induce  him  to  enter.  The  dance  loses  its  charm  ; 
he  ceases  to  swear;  he  becomes  self-absorbed  and  dissatisfied. 
During  a  short  period  he  gains  more  composure,  and  his  counte- 
nance puts  on  a  smirk  of  self-satisfaction.  But  it  is  transient, 
and  he  appears  more  than  ever  gloomy,  anxious,  haggard.  Is  he 
becoming  a  puritan  ?  —  for  he  seeks  the  conversation  of  the  fanat- 
ics, and  it  is  reported  that  he  has  been  closeted  with  Gifford,  the 
baptist  preacher !  He  even  remonstrates  with  some  of  his  former 
acquaintance  as  to  the  impiety  of  their  course.  He  has  visions  ; 
reads  his  Bible ;  is  alternately  calm  and  gloomy ;  undergoes  a 
whole  campaign  of  conflicts,  inconceivable  to  all  except  himself. 
Sometimes  he  thinks  himself  abandoned  by  hope ;  sometimes  that 
the  whole  universe  is  leagued  for  his  destruction.  Now  he 
attempts  miracles ;  then  he  thinks  himself  possessed  by  the  evil 
one.  But,  whatever  the  process  through  which  he  passes,  all  is  as 
yivid  as  if  actually  within  the  range  of  his  senses.     He  walks 


APPEARING  IN  TRUE  COLORS.  321 

through  the  wilderness  of  this  world,  and  dreams  as  he  goes. 
Such  was  the  process  by  which  a  poor  tinker  became  a  Christian  ; 
and  such  the  materials  out  of  which  was  formed,  in  due  time,  the 
Pilgrim's  Progress ! 

Who  has  ever  visited  Bedford,  —  that  pretty,  well-arranged, 
compact  town,  —  who  has  ever  stood  on  the  top  of  that  beautiful 
Grecian  bridge  which  now  spans  the  river,  and  looked  down  that 
rich  watery  avenue,  overshadowed  with  thick  foliage  on  either  side, 
towards  the  point  where  once  stood  the  ancient  castle,  and  not 
remembered  John  Bunyan?  Simple,  enchanting,  noble  man! 
What  does  not  the  world  owe  to  thee,  and  to  the  great  Being 
who  could  produce  such  as  thee  ?  Teacher  alike  of  the  infant  and 
of  the  aged ;  who  canst  direct  the  j&rst  thought  and  comfort  the 
last  doubt  of  man  ;  property  alike  of  the  peasant  and  the  prince  ; 
welcomed  by  the  ignorant  and  honored  by  the  wise,  —  thou  hast 
translated  Christianity  into  a  new  language,  and  that  a  universal 
one  !     Thou  art  the  prose-poet  of  all  time  ! 

In  the  year  1 655  John  Bunyan  was  admitted  a  member  of  the 
baptist  church  at  Bedford,  then  worshipping  under  the  ministry 
of  John  Gifford,  who  had  been  major  in  the  army  of  Charles  I. 
He  had  not  long  joined  himself  to  this  society,  when  he  began  to 
preach  ;  and  it  may  be  readily  supposed  that  the  style  of  such  a 
man  as  the  author  of  the  "  Pilgrim's  Progress "  would  render 
him  uncommonly  popular.  The  preaching  of  a  baptist,  however, 
was  not  without  its  dangers,  even  in  the  commonwealth  ;  and  Bun- 
yan was  indicted  for  the  offence,  probably  by  the  presbyterian 
party.  It  appears,  however,  that,  owing  to  the  interference  of 
the  protector,  the  indictment  was  set  aside.  Soon  after  the 
restoration,  his  persecution  began  in  earnest,  and  he  was  sentenced 
to  perpetual  banishment,  for  neglecting  to  come  to  church,  and  for 
holding  unlawful  meetings.  This  sentence  was,  however,  com- 
muted into  imprisonment ;  and  the  county  jail,  which  then  stood 
on  the  toi  of  Bedford  Bridge,  was  the  scene  of  his  residence  for 
more  than  twelve  years.     One  is  almost  inclined  to  think  of  that 


322  APPEARING   IN   TRUE   COLORS. 

building  as  tne  veritable  "  hospital  of  St.  John  the  Baptist," 
which  Bedford  contains. 

Sixty  other  dissenters  and  two  ministers  were  imprisoned 
together  with  Bunyan.  Whilst  thus  confined,  he  supported  him- 
self by  making  tagged  laces.  In  the  last  year  of  his  imprison- 
ment, A.  D.  1671,  when  the  severity  of  his  incarceration  was  con- 
siderably abated,  he  was  elected  pastor  of  the  church  at  Bedford  ; 
and  whilst  in  this  prison,  assisted  by  no  books  beyond  his  Bible 
and  Fox's  Martyrology,  he  wrote  the  Pilgrim's  Progress.  Bun- 
yan gives  an  affecting  account  of  the  mental  trials  he  endured  when 
he  was  first  imprisoned  : 

"  I  find  myself  a  man  encompassed  with  infirmities.  The  part- 
ing with  my  wife  and  four  children  hath  often  been  to  me,  in  this 
place,  as  the  peeling  the  flesh  from  the  bone ;  and  that,  not  only 
because  I  am  somewhat  too  fond  of  these  great  mercies,  but  also 
because  I  should  have  often  brought  to  my  mind  the  many  hard- 
ships, miseries  and  wants,  that  my  poor  family  was  like  to  meet 
with,  should  I  be  taken  from  them ;  especially  my  poor  blind 
child,  who  lay  nearer  to  my  heart  than  all  beside.  0  !  the 
thought  of  the  hardships  I  thought  my  poor  blind  child  might  go 
under  would  break  my  heart  to  pieces !  Poor  child  !  thought  I, 
what  sorrows  art  thou  like  to  have  for  thy  portion  in  this  world ! 
Thou  must  be  beaten,  must  beg,  suffer  hunger,  cold,  nakedness  and 
a  thousand  calamities,  though  I  cannot  now  endure  the  wind  to 
blow  upon  thee.  But  yet,  recalling  myself,  thought  I,  I  must 
venture  all  with  God,  though  it  goeth  to  the  quick  to  leave  you." 
Bunyan  was  at  length  released  from  his  prison  by  the  interposition 
of  Bishop  Barlow,  though  he  himself  afterwards  urged  the  rigor- 
ous execution  of  laws  against  nonconformists. 

Bunyan  had  recovered  his  liberty  when  James  II.  ascended  the 
throne.  This  incarnation  of  despotism  —  this  concentrated  essence 
of  Stuart  blood  —  began  his  reign  by  directing  all  his  energies 
against  the  nonconformists.  They  being  removed,  he  thought  little 
difficulty  would  be  found  in  uniting  high  churchmen  and  Roman- 
ists into  OBQ  compact  body.     But  he  did  not  calculate  what  resist- 


APPEARINa  IN  TRUE  COLORS.  323 

ance  those  who  were  in  power  would  make,  when  it  was  proposed 
to  let  in  another  power  above  their  own.  If  James  was  a  cath- 
olic, so  was  Charles  before  him,  —  at  least,  so  far  as  he  was  any- 
thing ;  for  religion  with  him  was  a  mere  turnstile,  to  be  moved 
about  as  convenience  might  dictate.  Monk,  it  is  said,  once  caught 
him  at  mass,  and  told  him  "  that  if  he  played  these  pranks,  though 
he  had  interest  enough  to  bring  him  in,  he  had  not  sufficient  to 
keep  him  there."  Therefore  Charles  temporized.  But  James, 
from  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  proclaimed  himself  a  catholic  and 
a  tyrant.  His  early  declaration  to  the  Scotch  gave  a  sample  of 
the  kind  of  liberty  they  must  expect :  "  I  am  resolved  to  main- 
tain my  power  in  its  greatest  lustre,  that  I  may  be  the  better  able 
to  defend  your  religion  against  fanatics." 

Informers  again  abounded ;  meeting-houses  were  disturbed ; 
ministers  were  searched  for  with  the  utmost  rigor  ;  tradesmen  were 
separated  by  imprisonment  from  their  business;  families  were 
painfully  dislocated,  fines  heavily  enforced,  and  spiritual  courts 
loaded  with  business. 

The  infamous  Jefi'reys  was  a  worthy  agent  of  James  in  this  new 
crusade  against  liberty  of  conscience.  The  old  high  commission 
court  was  restored,  and  this  man,  now  chancellor,  was  its  chief 
commissioner,  aided  by  Crewe,  Bishop  of  Durham,  and  Sprat, 
Bishop  of  Rochester.  One  of  the  first  victims  of  this  new  confed- 
eration was  Richard  Baxter,  who,  at  the  instigation  of  Sir  Roger 
L'Estrange,  aided  by  Dr.  Sherlock,  was  cited  for  portions  of  his 
paraphrase  of  the  New  Testament  referring  to  diocesan  bishops 
and  the  lawfulness  of  resisting  the  civil  power.  The  whole  trans- 
action was  a  matchless  specimen  of  efirontery  and  tyranny.  When 
he  appeared  in  Westminster  Hall,  it  was  moved  on  his  behalf,  as 
he  was  extremely  ill,  that  the  trial  should  be  delayed.  JeiFreys, 
in  a  passion,  shouted  out,  "  We  have  had  to  do  with  other  sorts  of 
persons,  but  now  we  have  a  saint  to  deal  with,  and  I  know  how  to 
deal  with  saints  as  well  as  sinners.  Yonder  stands  Gates  in  the 
pillory "  (he  was  actually  there  at  the  moment,  for  his  evidence 


324  APPEARING    IN    TRUE   COLORS. 

respecting  the  popish  plot,  and  richly  deserved  his  punishment), 
"  and  he  says  he  suffers  for  the  truth,  and  so  says  Baxter ;  but  if 
Baxter  did  but  stand  on  the  other  side  of  the  pillory  with  him,  I 
would  say,  'Two  of  the  greatest  rogues  and  scoundrels  in  the 
kingdom  stood  there.'  "  The  rest  of  the  trial  was  in  perfect 
accordance  with  this  commencement.  Baxter  was  defended  by 
Pollexfen,  who  became,  in  the  course  of  the  trial,  the  object  of 
Jeffreys'  fury.  Jeffreys  told  him,  "You  cant  to  the  jury  before- 
hand. Come,  then,"  said  he,  "  what  do  you  say  to  this  count  ?  " 
quoting  a  portion  of  the  paraphrase ;  "  is  he  not  an  old  knave  to 
interpret  this  as  belonging  to  liturgies  ?  "  "  So  do  others,"  replied 
Pollexfen,  "  of  the  Church  of  England,  who  would  be  loth  so  to 
wrong  the  cause  of  liturgies  as  to  make  them  a  novel  invention,  or 
not  to  be  able  to  date  them  as  early  as  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees." 
"  No,  no,  Mr.  Pollexfen,"  said  the  judge ;  "  they  were  long-winded, 
extensive  prayers,  such  as  they  used  to  say  when  they  appropriated 
Grod  to  themselves  :  '  Lord,  wc  are  thy  people,  thy  peculiar  people, 
thy  dear  people.'  "  And  then  he  snorted,  and  squeaked  through 
his  nose,  and  clenched  his  hands,  and  lifted  up  his  eyes,  mimicking 
their  manner,  and  running  on  furiously,  as  he  said  they  used  to 
pray ;  but  old  Pollexfen  gave  him  a  bite  now  and  then,  though  he 
could  hardly  get  in  a  word.  "  Why,  my  lord,"  said  he,  "  some 
will  think  it 's  hard  measure  to  stop  these  men's  mouths,  and  not 
let  them  speak  through  their  noses."  "  Pollexfen,"  said  Jeffreys, 
"  I  know  you  well ;  I  will  set  a  mark  upon  you ;  you  're  the 
patron  of  the  faction.  *  ^  Don't  we  know  how  he  preached 
formerly ;  he  used  to  encourage  all  the  women  and  maids  to  bring 
their  bodkins  and  thimbles,  to  carry  on  the  war  against  the  king, 
of  ever  blessed  memory,  —  an  old  schismatical  knave,  a  hypocritical 
villain !  ^  ^  What  ailed  the  old  blockhead,  the  unthankful 
villain,  that  he  would  not  conform  ?  Was  he  wiser  or  better  than 
other  men  ?  ^  =^  A  conceited,  stubborn,  fanatical  dog, —  hang 
him  !  This  one  old  fellow  hath  cast  more  reproach  upon  the  con- 
stitution and  discipline  of  our  church  than  will  be  wiped  off  these 


APPEARING   IN    TRUE   COLORS.  325 

hundred  years.     But  1 11  handle  him  for  it ;  for,  by  G ,  he 

deserves  to  be  whipped  through  the  city  !  " 

The  jury  found  Baxter  guilty,  and  Jeffreys  told  him  that  there 
was  n't  an  honest  man  in  England  but  what  took  him  for  a  great 
knave.  The  sentence  was,  that  he  should  be  fined  five  hundred 
marks ;  be  imprisoned  till  it  was  paid ;  and  enter  into  recogni- 
zances to  keep  the  peace  for  seven  years.  Jeffreys  proposed  the 
addition  of  a  whipping  through  the  city,  but  in  this  he  was  over- 
ruled. Being  unable  to  pay  the  fine,  Baxter  was  imprisoned  for 
two  years,  till  a  change  of  measures  set  him  at  liberty.  During 
his  imprisonment,  he  was  visited  by  Matthew  Henry,  who  relates 
the  conversation  which  took  place  during  the  interview. 

The  unsuccessful  attempt  of  the  Duke  of  Monmouth  gave  Jef- 
freys many  opportunities  of  sating  his  bloodthirsty  hostility  to 
nonconformists.  Among  others,  Lady  Lisle  was  beheaded,  and 
Mrs.  Grant  burnt  alive,  for  admitting  proscribed  persons  into  their 
houses.  Such  cruelties,  while  they  led  some  dissenters  to  abandon 
their  profession,  induced  others  to  suspect  the  validity  of  the  epis- 
copal system  itself,  and  to  quit  its  communion. 

"  The  dissenters  continued  to  take  the  most  prudent  measures  to 
cover  their  private  meetings  from  their  adversaries.  They  assem- 
bled in  small  numbers;  they  frequently  shifted  their  places  of 
worship,  and  met  together  late  in  the  evenings,  or  early  in  the 
mornings.  There  were  friends  without-doors,  always  on  the  watch 
to  give  notice  of  approaching  danger;  where  the  dwellings  of 
dissenters  joined,  they  made  windows,  or  holes,  in  the  walls,  that 
the  preacher's  voice  might  be  heard  in  two  or  three  houses ;  they 
had  sometimes  private  passages  from  one  house  to  another ;  and 
trap-doors  for  the  escape  of  the  minister,  who  always  went  in  dis- 
guise, except  when  he  was  discharging  his  office.  In  country 
towns  and  villages,  they  were  admitted  through  back  yards  and 
gardens  into  the  house,  to  avoid  the  observation  of  neighbors  and 
passengers.  For  the  same  reason,  they  never  sung  psalms,  and 
the  minister  was  placed  in  such  an  inward  part  of  the  house  that 
his  voice  might  not  be  heard  in  the  streets;  the  doors  were 
28 


326  APPEARING   IN   TRUE   COLORS. 

always  locked,  and  a  sentinel  placed  near  them  to  give  the  alarm, 
that  the  preacher  might  escape  by  some  private  passage."  ^ 

In  illustration,  it  may  be  observed  that  John  Bunyan  was  usu- 
ally in  the  habit  of  going  to  preach  in  the  disguise  of  a  carter,  with 
a  long  whip  upon  his  shoulder. 

The  oppressive  conduct  of  James,  which  was  so  little  disguised 
as  to  show  that  he  was  more  weak  than  wicked,  was  next  turned 
against  the  prelates.  This  roused  the  clergy,  who  now  employed 
their  pulpits  to  denounce  his  course.  As  if  by  some  sudden  wind, 
all  the  statements  which  they  had  so  profusely  made,  in  favor 
of  non-resistance  t  and  the  royal  prerogative,  like  the  sentences 
of  the  Cumaean  sibyl,  were  whirled  away  in  an  instant.  The 
word  of  a  king  had  been  pronounced  by  Archbishop  Sharp  to  be  as 
sacred  as  his  text ;  but  when  the  English  hierarchy  was  threatened, 
the  doctrine  became  naught.  In  an  instant  they  threw  themselves 
into  the  position  in  which  the  reviled  puritans  of  the  commonwealth 
had  stood  before  them.  Even  Oxford,  which  had  described  resist- 
ance as  "  impious,  seditious  and  damnable,"  refused  compliance 
with  James'  new  commission  court,  and  drew  from  him  the  sar- 
casm, "  Is  this  your  Church  of  England  loyalty  ?  " 

To  promote  still  further  his  design  of  bringing  the  whole  nation 
under  the  influence  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  James  now  attempted 
a  general  toleration,  endeavoring  to  make  common  cause  with 
dissenters,  and  to  outmatch  the  Church  of  England.     Despairing, 

*  Neal,  vol.  v.,  chap.  i. 

f  This  doctrine  was  maintained  by  Jeremy  Taylor,  Usher,  Bramhall,  Saunder- 
son,  and  most  of  the  dignified  clergy.  Defoe  declares  that  he  had  heard  from 
the  pulpit,  "  that  if  the  king  commanded  my  head,  and  sent  his  message  to 
fetch  it,  I  was  bound  to  submit,  and  stand  still  while  it  was  cut  off."  Cart- 
wright,  Bishop  of  Chester,  said,  "  Though  the  king  should  not  please  or  humor 
us,  though  he  rend  off  the  mantle  from  our  bodies,  *  *  nay,  though  he  sen- 
tence us  to  death,  *  *  yet  if  we  are  living  members  of  the  Church  of  England, 
we  must  neither  open  our  mouths,  *  *  nor  must  we  ask  our  prince  why  he 
governs  us  otherwise  than  we  please  to  be  governed  ourselves  ;  we  must  neither 
call  him  to  account  for  his  religion,  nor  question  his  policy  in  civil  matters  ;  for 
he  is  made  our  king  by  God's  law,  of  whisb  the  law  of  tho  iand  is  only  declara- 
tive."—  Somers^  Tracts-,  vol.  IX.,  p.  129 


APPEARING  IN  TRUE  COLORS.  327 

however,  of  gaining  this  point  by  act  of  parliament,  and  not  unwil- 
ling to  stretch  his  own  prerogative,  James  proceeded  to  claim  on 
behalf  of  the  monarch  a  dispensing  power  as  it  regarded  penal 
enactments  made  by  act  of  parliament,  and,  with  the  concurrence 
of  his  judges,  declared  the  authority  of  the  crown  to  be  absolute. 

Religious  liberty  was  thus  held  out  to  dissenters,  at  the  expense 
of  constitutional  freedom.  The  dilemma  was  a  difficult  one ;  so 
difficult,  as  to  make  us  cease  to  wonder  that  men  should  have  taken 
opposite  views  on  the  subject.  Some  rejoiced  in  their  actual  free- 
dom, however  gained  ;  whilst  others  saw  that  dissenters  were  only 
protected  in  order  to  divide  them  from  the  church,  and  that  the 
end  would  be  the  bringing  in  of  a  popery  which  would  crush  them 
both.  Bunyan,  among  the  rest,  detected  the  motive  which 
prompted  the  new  measures.  Whilst  addresses  went  up  to  the 
king  from  various  bodies  of  dissenters,  the  principal  men  kept 
silence.  Defoe  says,  "  I  told  the  dissenters  I  had  rather  the 
Church  of  England  should  pull  off  our  clothes  by  fines  and  forfeit- 
ures, than  that  the  papists  should  fall  both  upon  the  church  and 
the  dissenters,  and  pull  our  skins  off  by  fire  and  fagot."  "^  The 
truth,  however,  was,  that  the  dissenters  were  afraid  of  toleration 
in  the  abstract.  "  The  shell,"  to  use  Bunyan's  simile,  was  yet  "  on 
their  head."  They  hated  popery  ;  their  feelings  regarding  it  were 
the  extreme  of  intolerance.  Their  own  and  their  fathers'  suffer- 
ings had  been  so  great,  that  they  were  distrustful  and  timorous  as 
to  any  decided  action. 

It  was  scarcely  surprising.  The  havoc  committed  among  them, 
during  the  recent  execution  of  the  penal  laws,  was  frightful. 
Twenty  thousand  presbyterians  suffered  martyrdom  in  Scotland, 
during  the  reigns  of  Charles  II.  and  James  II.+  The  quakers 
complained  that  fifteen  hundred  of  their  body  were  in  prison  ;  of 
whom  three  hundred  and  fifty  had  died  since  1660.  Eight  hundred 
and  forty-one  were  transported  to  the  West  Indies,  many  of  whom 
died  in  the  passage,  and  some  were  sold  as  slaves.    Eight  thousand 

*  Defoe's  Appeal  to  Honor  and  Justice,  p.  52. 
f  M 'One's  Covenanters. 


328  APPEARING    IN   TRUE   COLORS. 

dissenters  are  said  to  have  perished  in  prison,  during  the  reign  of 
Charles  I.  alone.  As  a  proof  of  the  temper  of  the  times,  it  may 
be  mentioned,  that  Jeremiah  White,  who  had  been  one  of  Crom- 
well's chaplains,  had  "  prepared  a  list  of  ministers  and  others  who 
had  suffered  imprisonment ;  distinguishing  those  who  had  died,  or 
were  starved  in  jail,  with  an  account  of  the  fines  levied  by  execu- 
tion on  their  estates."  A  large  reward  was  offered  by  James' 
party  for  its  publication,  as  that  which  would  bring  infamy  on  the 
Church  of  England.  White,  however,  absolutely  refused.  "  He 
scorned  the  temptation,  rejected  the  rewards,  and  told  them  he 
would  not  so  far  assist  to  pull '  down  the  church.  In  short,  he 
refused  either  to  publish  his  memoranda,  or  to  give  them  the  least 
opportunity  for  doing  so  themselves ;  and  this  purely  as  he  saw 
i;he  design  of  the  party,  which,  as  fellow-protestant,  as  well  as  a 
iissenter,  he  had  more  sense,  honor  and  Christianity,  than  to  join 
in."  ^  According  to  Oldmixon,  White  had  collected  a  list  con- 
taining sixty  thousand,  who  suffered  for  their  religious  opinions, 
from  the  Restoration  to  the  Revolution,  five  thousand  of  whom  died 
in  prison. 

William  and  Benjamin  Howling,  who  were  baptists,  suffered  at 
this  time  a  cruel  death.  John  Howe  fled  the  country.  The 
objects  for  which  the  civil  war  had  been  undertaken  during  the 
last  reign  were  utterly,  and,  for  the  present,  hopelessly  defeated, 
amidst  a  series  of  scenes  to  which  English  history  offers  no  par- 
allel. 

The  meeting-house  at  Stepney,  built  in  1674,  still  exists,  to 
show  what  were  the  circumstances  under  which  dissenting  worship 
was  carried  on  in  those  days,  and  how  the  congregations  screened 
themselves  from  notice. 

The  lower  part  of  it  was  probably  employed  as  a  family  man- 
sion, and  divided  into  rooms.  This  whole  area  is  now  sustained  by 
two  majestic  pillars,  sent  over  from  Holland  after  the  revolution, 
when  Matthew  Mead  was  pastor  of  the  church.  But  the  upper 
part  of  the  building,  then  accessible  by  stairs  and  trap-doors,  was 

*  Defoe's  Review,  vol.  ii.,  p.  488. 


APPEARING  IN  TRUE  COLORS.  329 

fitted  up  as  a  place  of  public  worship,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  afford 
some  security  against  the  intrusion  of  an  informer.     The  whole 


MEETING-HOUSE,  STEPNEY. 


building  is  now  one  of  the  most  venerable  memorials  of  noncon- 
formist history. 

How  James  II.  fulfilled  the  evil  destinies  of  his  notorious  family, 
and,  whilst  deaf  to  all  friendly  warning,  rushed  madly  on  the  catas- 
trophe which  ended  his  dynasty ;  —  how  the  king,  diverted  from 
the  powerless  nonconformists,  provoked  a  party  able  to  avenge  its 
wrongs,  —  the  prelatical  party  itself;  —  how  the  seven  bishops 
refused  to  proclaim  the  indulgence  illegally  granted  by  the  mon- 
arch, and  how  James'  war  upon  them  hastened  and  consummated 
his  own  ruin ;  —  how  William,  Prince  of  Orange,  was  summoned 
by  the  voice  of  the  nation  to  the  forsaken  throne ;  —  how,  wearied 
and  exhausted  by  persecution,  the  nation  consented  to  a  form  of 
toleration  which,  though  essentially  imperfect,  was  a  large  improve- 
ment on  the  terror  of  the  preceding  reigns ;  —  and  how  dissent 
became  an  evil  to  be  borne  with,  if  it  could  not  be  cured,  —  absurd 
and  contemptible  as  such  a  condition  is,  —  the  reader  of  ordinary 
history  already  knows.  That  the  main  evil,  however,  still  re- 
mained, though  it  was  somewhat  palliated  and  disguised,  will  be 
apparent  in  the  few  pages  which  yet  follow. 
28=* 


CHAPTER    XI. 

"high  church." 

"  Sir  Riihard  Steele  hit  the  mark  when  he  thus  distinguished  the  two  princi- 
pal churches  in  Christendom,  the  Church  of  Rome  and  the  Church  of  England  : 
that  the  former  pretended  to  be  infallible,  and  the  latter  to  be  always  in  the 
right."  —  Whiston''s  Life,  p.  168. 

We  have  introduced  the  reader  to  London,  as  London,  or  some 
part  of  it,  appeared  at  the  commencement  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury. The  present  scene  is  laid  in  the  heart  of  the  city  a  hundred 
years  later.  The  ruins  of  the  great  and  devastating  fire  have  been 
long  since  removed,  and  the  metropolis  puts  on  an  altered  air.  The 
opportunity  would  have  been  a  noble  one  for  carrying  into  execu- 
tion the  magnificent  plans  of  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  and  for  reduc- 
ing the  ill-arranged  streets  to  a  scheme  presenting  both  grandeur 
and  unity.  But  private  interests  had  prevailed  over  public  con- 
venience, and  the  city  arose  as  it  best  could.  It  was,  however, 
greatly  improved  in  its  reconstruction.  New  churches,  of  which 
no  less  than  fifty-one  within  the  city  were  from  the  designs  of 
Wren  himself,  met  the  eye  in  every  direction,  many  of  them 
alike  remarkable  for  their  elegance  and  convenience.  The  thorough- 
fares were,  however,  still  narrow  and  confined ;  booths  protruded 
in  front  of  many  of  the  houses ;  footpaths  were  unknown,  except 
in  a  few  favored  quarters ;  and  though  some  imperfect  attempts 
had  been  made  at  lighting  the  streets,  the  efibrt  had  not,  as  yet, 
been  remarkable  for  its  succees.  The  great  Cathedral  Church  of 
St.  Paul's,  though  ruined  in  the  plan  for  its  construction  by  the 
desire  of  James  II.  to  have  it  adapted  to  a  Roman  Catholic  ceremo- 
n*al,  was  advancing  to  its  completion  under  the  inspection  of  its  now 


HIGH   CHUECH.  331 

aged  architect.  The  crowds  which  fill  the  streets  are  remarkable 
in  their  attire.  The  full  periwig,  the  broad-bottomed  coat,  the 
conspicuous  shoe-buckle,  the  dependent  queue,  distinguish  the  gen- 
tlemen, as  the  wide-spread  hoop,  now  for  some  time  in  fashion, 
marks  the  ladies ;  whilst  the  more  sober  citizen  contents  himself 
with  his  single-breasted  coat  of  russet  color,  and  the  square  cravat 
which  hangs  pendent  beneath  his  chin.  How  different  is  the  new 
citj  in  its  character  and  costume  from  the  old  one,  which  so  much 
distinguished  itself  in  the  wars  of  the  parliament!  The  naked 
tyranny  of  the  sovereign  is  not  now  the  theme  of  every  crowd  and 
coflFee-house.  Popish  plots  are  no  more.  The  succession  to  the 
throne  is  no  longer  disputed.  Commerce,  formerly  disordered  and 
disorganized,  is  prosperous.  England,  which  a  little  while  ago 
expatriated  its  own  religious  men,  has  become  the  haven  for  those 
who,  driven  from  their  homes  by  the  revocation  of  the  edict  of 
Nantes,  have  taken  refuge  here,  and  have  introduced  their  manu- 
factures to  the  great  benefit  of  the  entire  community.  Has  the 
nation,  then,  unlearned  its  old  illiberalities  ?  Has  it  arrived  at 
the  conclusion  that  the  war  of  the  civil  power  with  conscience  is 
unrighteous  and  monstrous  ?  Has  the  magistrate  dropped  his 
sword  where  the  rights  of  Caesar  end,  and  where  those  of  God 
begin  ?     We  shall  see. 

We  are  opposite  to  the  New  Exchange,  a.  d.  1703.  (The  reader 
will  remember  that,  at  the  date  of  which  we  speak,  it  faced,  not  as 
now  the  east,  but  the  south.)  A  large  crowd  is  collected  before 
the  pillory  which  has  been  placed  there.  It  is  hung  with  garlands, 
by  hands  which  little  sympathize  with  the  purpose  of  its  erection. 
It  contains  a  sufferer, — a  man  of  the  middle  size,  about  forty  years 
of  age,  with  hooked  nose,  a  sharp  chin,  a  dark-colored  wig,  and  a 
countenance  bearing  evident  traces  of  much  wear  and  tear,  and  in 
which  the  grave  is  about  equally  mingled  with  the  satirical.  His 
advent  to  the  pillory  has  been  a  kind  of  triumphal  procession  ;  and 
now  he  is  fixed  in  it,  the  scoffs  do  not  arise  nor  the  missiles  fly ; 
the  mob,  on  the  contrary,  drink  his  health.  The  careful  spectator 
may  se<^,  in  the  merry  twinkle  of  those  gray  eyes,  the  trenchant 


332  HIGH   CHURCH. 

thoughts  which  he  afterwards  puts  into  verse,  styled  "  A  Hymn 
to  the  Pillory."  The  exhibition  over,  to  be  repeated  in  Cheapside, 
and  at  Temple-bar,  on  successive  days,  refreshments  are  handed  to 
him,  and  he  departs  from  a  scene  which  is  rather  a  triumph  than  a 
punishment. 

Who  is  the  criminal  ?  A  man  of  intelligible  principles,  though 
they  were  now  out  of  fashion  ;  the  most  versatile  writer,  perhaps, 
of  our  literature ;  a  wit,  a  true  lover  of  liberty,  a  conscientious 
dissenter,  a  brave  and  undaunted  spirit ;  the  author  of  works 
which  will  live  long  after  the  majority  of  his  contemporary  gener- 
ation are  forgotten ;  the  future  idol  of  youth,  one  of  whose  works 
will  stand  beside  the  Pilgrim's  Progress,  on  every  juvenile  shelf. 

*'  Fearlessly  on  high  stands  unabashed  Defoe." 

What  has  he  done  ?  The  answer  to  that  question  will  demand 
a  little  retrospection. 

When,  on  the  revolution,  William  and  Mary  gained  the  throne 
of  Great  Britain,  one  of  the  earliest  measures  prompted  by  the 
king  was  a  remission  of  the  penal  laws  against  protestant  noncon- 
formity. William's  sentiments  regarding  religion  were  liberal ; 
he  was  himself  a  presbyterian.  Yet  neither  he  nor  the  dissenters 
who  so  warmly  supported  him  had  any  definite  notion  beyond  that 
of  "  making  the  rule  of  Christianity  to  be  the  rule  of  conformity." 
Locke,  to  his  immortal  honor,  though  almost  alone,  advocated  the 
true  principle  :  "  The  cure  of  souls  cannot  belong  to  the  civil  mag- 
istrate, because  the  whole  of  his  power  consists  in  outward  force  ; 
but  true  and  saving  religion  consists  in  the  inward  persuasion  of 
the  mind,  without  which  nothing  is  acceptable  to  God.  =^  =^  # 
Magistracy  does  not  oblige  him  to  put  off  either  humanity  or 
Christianity.  But  it  is  one  thing  to  persuade,  another  to  com- 
mand ;  one  thing  to  press  with  arguments,  another  with  penalties." 
It  had  been  moved  by  Hampden,  grandson  of  the  patriot,  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  that  the  oath  which  pledged  the  king  to  main- 
tain the  Church  of  England  should  be  so  modified  as  to  admit  of 


HIGH   CHURCH. 

his  assenting  to  any  forms  and  ceremonies  whicli  parliament  should 
approve.  But  the  effort  was  fruitless.  It  was  next  attempted  to 
remove  all  impediments  which  prevented  dissenters  from  exercis- 
ing civic  functions.  This  also  was  frustrated  by  a  large  majority; 
and  an  equally  fruitless  attempt  was  made  to  rescind  the  Test  Act. 
All  that  could  be  gained  was  the  Toleration  Act ;  an  imperfect  and 
insulting  measure,  since  it  gave  what  it  conferred  as  an  act  of  grace, 
and  involved  in  its  very  name  the  right  to  withhold.  It  made  no 
provision  for  free  education  ;  it  was  only  available  to  those  who 
avowed  the  doctrinal  articles  of  the  Church  of  England ;  and  it 
excluded  from  its  benefits  all  Roman  Catholics.  It  was,  in  fact, 
the  old  enemy,  but  in  a  more  decorous  dress. 

Such  as  it  was,  however,  it  was  extremely  distasteful  to  the  high 
church  section ;  and  Bishop  Burnet  lost  great  favor  with  his  pre- 
latical  friends  for  the  part  he  took  in  upholding  it.  He  who  would 
make  himself  acquainted  with  the  opinions  of  those  who  opposed  it 
has  only  to  turn  to  the  bitter  and  caustic  diatribes  of  South.  Such 
were  the  sentiments  with  which,  in  Queen  Anne's  time,  Westmin- 
ster Abbey  and  the  royal  chapels  resounded  ! 

Before  the  death  of  William,  but  after  that  of  Queen  Mary,  a 
controversy  had  arisen  which  assumes  considerable  importance  in 
the  ecclesiastical  history  of  the  times.  When  so  large  a  number 
of  the  citizens  were  dissenters,  it  was  impossible  that  municipal 
offices  should  not  often  invite  their  acceptance ;  and  it  was  custom- 
ary for  dissenters,  in  order  to  comply  with  the  requisitions  of  the 
Test  Act,  to  receive  the  communion  occasionally  at  church  On 
one  occasion.  Sir  Humphrey  Edwin,  then  lord  mayor,  carried  the 
paraphernalia  of  his  office  to  Pinner's  Hall  meeting-house.  This 
daring  act  of  "  profanation"  was  like  a  spark  thrown  into  a  barrel 
of  gunpowder.  Rebuke,  abuse  and  satire,  were  alike  directed 
against  the  offence.  Dr.  Nichols  complained  that  the  lord  mayor 
carried  the  sword  with  him  to  "  a  nasty  conventicle,  which  was 
held  in  a  hall  belonging  to  one  of  the  mean  mechanical  companies 
in  the  city."  Swift,  in  his  "  Tale  of  a  Tub,"  satirizes  Sir  Hum- 
phrey Edwin,  by  describing  Jack  getting  upon  a  great  horse,  and 


334  HIGH   CHURCH. 

eating  custard,  —  custard  being  a  standing  dish  at  a  lord  mayor's 
feast.  Defoe  stepped  in  to  this  controversy.  "  There  is  a  sort  of 
truth,"  said  he,  "  which  all  men  owe  to  the  principles  they  profess, 
and,  generally  speaking,  all  men  pay  it.  None  but  protestants 
halt  between  God  and  Baal ;  Christians  of  an  amphibious  nature, 
that  can  believe  one  way  of  worship  to  be  right,  and  yet  serve  God 
another.  ^  ^  The  prosperity  of  the  church  of  Christ  has  been 
more  fatal  to  it  than  all  the  persecution  of  its  enemies.  ^  ^ 
'T  is  of  absolute  necessity  that  a  man  be  of  one  side  or  the  other ; 
either  the  conformist  will  mar  the  dissenter,  or  the  dissenter  will 
mar  the  conformist.  But  to  make  the  matter  a  gain  to  dodge 
religions,  and  go  in  the  morning  to  church,  and  in  the  afternoon 
to  meeting ;  to  communicate  in  private  with  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land to  save  a  penalty,  and  then  go  back  to  the  dissenters  and  com- 
municate again  there  ;  this  is  such  a  retrograde  devotion,  that  I 
can  see  no  color  of  pretence  for  in  all  the  sacred  book." 

On  the  death  of  King  William,  at  the  end  of  a  reign  favorable 
on  the  whole  to  religious  liberty,  high  church  principles  were  again 
in  the  ascendant,  as  might  indeed  have  been  expected  from  the 
reign  of  a  granddaughter  of  the  Earl  of  Clarendon.  The  tories 
were  now  triumphant ;  fanaticism  was  proclaimed  dangerous  to 
the  welfare  of  the  state.  Dissenters  were  exposed  to  every  kind 
of  insult.  Their  meeting-houses  were  invaded  by  the  mob,  and 
ministers  were  insulted  in  the  street.  Almost  all  the  May-poles  in 
England  were  repaired,  and  drunkenness  and  revelling  resumed 
their  sway.  To  stem  the  tumult  which  threatened  a  revival  of  the 
old  persecutions,  the  queen  was  compelled  to  issue  a  declaration, 
assurinof  dissenters  of  her  intention  to  maintain  the  act  of  tolera- 
tion.  But,  in  the  first  parliament  of  the  queen,  a  bill  was  intro- 
duced to  interdict  dissenters  from  the  practice  of  occasional  con- 
formity, a  custom  which  had  been  sanctioned  by  Bates,  Howe, 
Baxter,  and  others  of  equal  eminence.  Sir  Thomas  Abney  had 
revived  the  practice  of  Sir  Humphrey  Edwin,  which  led  Defoe  to 
address  a  letter  to  Howe,  Sir  Thomas'  pastor,  calling  upon  him 
either  to  vindicate  or  to  denounce  the  practice.     A  correspondence 


HIGH   CHURCH.  835 

of  some  warmth  ensued.  Defoe  remarks,  "Is  it  not  very  hard 
that  the  dissenters  should  be  excluded  from  all  places  of  profit  and 
trust  and  honor,  and  at  the  same  time  should  not  be  excused  from 
those  which  are  attended  with  charge,  trouble  and  loss  of  time  ? 
That  a  dissenter  shall  be  pressed  as  a  sailor  to  fight  at  sea,  listed 
as  a  soldier  to  fight  on  shore,  and,  let  his  merit  be  never  so  much 
above  his  fellows,  shall  never  be  capable  of  preferment  so  much  as 
to  carry  a  halbert  ?  That  we  must  maintain  our  own  clergy  and 
your  fijergy,  our  own  poor  and  your  poor,  pay  equal  taxes  and 
equal  duties,  and  not  to  be  thought  worthy  to  be  trusted  to  set  a 
drunkard  in  the  stocks  ?  =^  ^  We  wonder,  gentlemen,  you  will 
accept  our  money  to  carry  on  your  wars." 

About  this  time,  too,  in  the  year  1702,  Defoe  published  a  pam- 
phlet, entitled  "  The  Shortest  Way  with  the  Dissenters ;  or,  Pro- 
posals for  the  Establishment  of  the  Church."  In  this  pamphlet 
he  had  principally  in  view  a  sermon  recently  preached  by  Dr. 
Sacheverell,  entitled  "The  Political  Union,"  in  which  occurred 
this  sentence,  "  that  he  could  not  be  a  true  son  of  the  Church  of 
England  who  did  not  lift  up  the  banner  of  the  church  against  the 
dissenters."  In  a  cuttingly  ironical  manner,  Defoe  exhorts  the 
high-church  party  to  proceed  to  severities  against  the  dissenters. 
"  Here  is  the  opportunity,  and  the  only  one,  perhaps,  that  ever  the 
church  had,  to  secure  herself  and  destroy  her  enemies.  If  ever 
you  will  establish  the  best  Christian  church  in  the  world  ;  if  ever 
you  will  suppress  the  spirit  of  enthusiasm  ;  if  ever  you  will  free 
the  nation  from  the  viperous  brood  that  have  so  long  sucked  the 
blood  of  their  mother  ;  if  you  will  leave  your  posterity  free  from 
faction  and  rebellion,  this  is  the  time.  This  is  the  time  to  pull  up 
this  heretical  weed  of  sedition,  that  has  so  long  disturbed  the  peace 
of  the  church,  and  poisoned  the  good  corn.  But,  says  another  hot 
and  cold  objector,  '  This  is  renewing  the  fire  and  fagot ;  this  will 
be  cruelty  in  its  nature,  and  barbarous  to  all  the  world.'  I  answer, 
it  is  cruel  to  kill  a  snake  or  a  toad  in  cold  blood ;  but  the  poison  of 
their  nature  makes  it  a  charity  to  our  neighbors  to  destroy  those 
creatures,  not  from  any  personal  injury  received,  but  for  proven- 


336  HIGH    CHURCH. 

tion ;  not  for  the  evil  they  have  done,  but  for  the  evil  they  may 
do.  ^  =^  ^  =^  Some  beasts  are  for  sport,  and  the  huntsmen 
give  them  the  advantages  of  ground ;  but  some  are  knocked  on  the 
head  by  all  possible  ways  of  violence  and  surprise.  I  do  not  pre- 
scribe fire  and  fagot,  but,  as  Scipio  said  of  Carthage,  ^Delenda  est 
Carthago,^  they  are  to  be  rooted  out  of  this  nation,  if  ever  we  will 
live  in  peace,  serve  God,  or  enjoy  our  own.  ^  ^  ^  'T  is  vain 
to  trifle  in  this  matter ;  the  light  foolish  fondling  of  them  by  fines 
is  their  glory  and  advantage ;  if  the  gallows  instead  of  the  compter, 
and  the  galleys  instead  of  the  fines,  were  the  reward  of  going  to  a 
conventicle,  there  would  not  be  so  many  sufferers.  The  spirit  of 
martyrdom  is  over ;  they  that  will  go  to  church  to  be  chosen 
sherifi*s  and  mayors  would  go  to  forty  churches  rather  than  be 
hanged.  #  ^  =^  We  hang  men  for  trifles,  and  banish  thera 
for  thinojs  not  worth  naming.  But  an  ofifence  against  God  and  the 
church,  against  the  welfare  of  the  world  and  the  dignity  of  religion, 
shall  be  bought  off  for  five  shillings.  This  is  such  a  shame  to  a 
Christian  government,  that  't  is  with  regret  I  transmit  it  to  pos- 
terity." 

So  ingeniously  was  this  production  constructed,  and  so  little  did 
it  transcend  the  expressed  opinions  of  the  high-church  bigots,  that 
in  the  first  instance  this  pamphlet  of  Defoe's  was  received  with 
enthusiasm.  He  himself  tells  us  that  he  received  thanks  for  it, 
and  it  was  loudly  praised  by  some  who,  when  they  ascertained  the 
authorship,  were  enraged  beyond  measure. 

It  was  for  the  publication  of  this  pamphlet  that  Defoe  was 
brought  to  trial  at  the  Old  Bailey,  and,  having  submitted  to  the 
mercy  of  the  court,  was  thus  sentenced  :  —  *'  That  he  pay  a  fine 
of  two  hundred  marks  to  the  queen,  stand  three  times  in  the  pil- 
lory, be  imprisoned  during  the  queen's  pleasure,  and  find  sureties 
for  his  good  behavior  during  seven  years." 

The  imprisonment  in  Newgate,  which  succeeded  this  trial,  was 
ruinous  to  Defoe's  circumstances;  whilst  his  association  in  the 
prison  with  thieves  and  vagabonds  severely  injured  his  moral  deli- 
cacy.    During  his  incarceration  he  published  several  works,  and 


HIGH   CHURCH.  337 

led  on  the  way  to  the  Tatlers  and  Spectators  of  a  subsequent  day, 
by  commencing  his  periodical  "  Review."  "When  the  high-church 
party  were  removed  from  power,  and  Harley  became  secretary  of 
state,  Defoe  was  released  from  his  imprisonment. 

The  hall  at  Westminster,  which  has  witnessed  the  inauguration 
of  a  long  line  of  English  monarchs,  within  which  were  tried  Straf- 
ford, Laud  and  Charles  I.,  and  which,  in  modern  times,  was  the 
scene  of  the  indictment  of  Warren  Hastings,  witnessed,  in  the  year 
1709,  a  pompous  ceremonial  held  over  a  very  insignificant  offender. 
We  refer  to  the  trial  of  Dr.  Henry  Sacheverell.  This  man,  who 
was  remarkable  for  nothing  but  his  daring  vehemence,  whose  first 
application  for  ordination  was  refused,  and  who,  in  one  of  his  pub- 
lications, spoke  of  "  parallel  lines  meeting  in  a  common  centre," 
who  had  been  an  unsuccessful  whig,  and  now  brought  his  newly- 
gained  toryism  into  the  market  for  hire,  had  been  by  popular  elec- 
tion inducted  into  the  living  of  St.  Saviour's,  Southwark,  and  now 
derived  from  his  boldness  a  notoriety  entirely  unmerited  by  his 
talents  or  his  virtues.  His  manners  were  haughty,  and  his  person, 
which  he  attired  with  the  most  sedulous  care,  agreeable  and  impos- 
ing. He  had  preached  during  this  year  two  sermons ;  one  before 
the  judges  at  Derby,  the  other  on  the  5th  of  November,  before  the 
lord  mayor,  at  St.  Paul's,  under  the  titles  of  "  The  Communica- 
tions of  Sin,"  and  "  The  Perils  of  False  Brethren,  both  in  Church 
and  State."  Of  the  sort  of  doctrines  delivered  in  these  addresses 
it  is  almost  unnecessary  to  select  a  specimen.  We  will,  however, 
take  the  following.  Referring  to  the  Church  of  England,  he 
says  : 

"If  to  assert  separation  from  her  communion  to  be  no  schism, 
or  if  it  was,  that  schism  is  no  damnable  sin ;  =^  ^  If  upon  all 
occasions  to  comply  with  the  dissenters,  both  in  public  and  private 
affairs,  as  persons  of  tender  conscience  and  piety  ;  to  promote  their 
interest  in  elections,  to  sneak  to  them  for  places  and  preferment, 
to  defend  toleration  and  liberty  of  conscience,  and  under  the  pre- 
tence of  moderation  to  excuse  their  separation,  and  lay  the  fault 
upon  the  true  sons  of  the  church  for  carrying  matters  too  high ; 
29 


338  HIGH    CHURCH. 

If  to  court  the  fanatics  in  private,  and  to  hear  them  wit.,  patience, 
if  not  with  approbation,  rail  at  and  blaspheme  the  church,  and 
upon  occasion  to  justify  the  king's  murder  ;  If  to  flatter  both  the 
dead  and  the  living  in  their  vices,  and  to  tell  the  world  that  if  they 
have  wit  and  money  enough,  they  need  no  repentance ;  and  that 
only  fools  and  beggars  can  be  damned,  —  if  these,  I  say,  are  the 
modish  and  fashionable  criterions  of  a  true  churchman,  God  deliver 
us  from  all  such  false  brethren  !  " 

Such  were  some  of  the  means  by  which  Sacheverell  blew  him- 
self into  popularity.  In  ordinary  times,  such  a  man  might  be 
left  to  his  own  insignificance.  But  when  Sacheverell  advanced, 
from  abusing  dissenters,  to  insinuate  that  the  toleration  act  was 
unwarrantable  and  unjust,  that  the  ministry  of  state  tended  to 
the  destruction  of  the  constitution,  and  that  the  means  used  to 
bring  about  the  late  revolution  were  odious  and  unjustifiable, 
the  ministry,  headed  by  Lord  Godolphin,  whom,  under  the  name 
of  Volpone,  Sacheverell  had  especially  attacked,  brought  against 
him  a  bill  of  impeachment. 

The  case  excited  the  widest  interest.  During  its  progress  busi- 
ness was  almost  at  a  stand.  The  summons  of  this  hot-headed 
zealot  to  loosen  from  its  scabbard  the  sword  which  the  wiser  policy 
of  William  of  Orange  had  sheathed,  was  responded  to  by  the  mul- 
titude with  acclamations  of  enthusiasm.  The  trial  lasted  three 
weeks,  and  excited  the  interest  of  the  whole  kingdom.  Sacheverell 
was  attended  daily  to  Westminster  Hall  by  an  excited  and  furious 
mob.  They  compelled  every  person  to  pull  off  his  hat  to  the  high- 
church  martyr  as  he  passed  ;  and  each  person  endeavored  to  come 
near  his  person,  and  to  kiss  his  hand.  The  queen,  who  attended 
the  trial  in  her  private  capacity,  was  assailed  by  them  with  cries 
— "  God  bless  your  majesty  and  the  church !  we  hope  your 
majesty  is  for  Dr.  Sacheverell."  The  defence  of  this  "  high- 
church  martyr  "  was  a  perfect  tour  de  force.  He  denied  none  of 
the  matters  with  which  he  was  charged,  but  declared  that  King 
William,  in  arriving  at  the  throne,  had  disclaimed  the  idea  of 
resistance,  —  "  As  if,"  says  Defoe,  "  the  Prince  of  Orange  had 


HIGH    CHURCH.  339 

not  brought  with  him  an  army  to  resist,  but  came  with  fourteen 
thousand  men  at  his  heels,  to  stand  and  look  en  while  the  Eng- 
lish gentry  and  clergy,  with  prayers  and  tears,  besought  King 
James  to  run  away  and  leave  the  throne  vacant !  "  Sacheverell 
well  knew  that  William  III.  had  glozed  over  his  movements 
by  honeyed  words.  It  was,  moreover,  pleaded,  that  the  language 
held  out  by  the  doctor  was  sustained  by  the  language  of  the  church 
homilies  —  an  argument  not  so  easy  for  the  church  party  to  an- 
swer !  He  declared  that,  so  far  from  bringing  any  charge  against 
the  queen,  he  held  her  person  in  the  utmost  respect  and  affection  ; 
and  in  answer  to  the  accusation  that  he  was  an  incendiary,  quoted 
passages  from  his  sermons,  in  which  ♦'  he  had  invited  the  separat- 
ists to  renounce  their  schism,  and  to  come  sincerely  into  the 
church."  The  occasion  was  distinguished  by  some  parliamentary 
oratory  of  a  high  kind.  Lieutenant-general  Stanhope,  especially, 
one  of  the  managers,  made  a  deep  impression  by  his  oratory. 

The  defence  of  the  accused  was  written  for  him,  it  was  said,  by 
Atterbury.  The  result  of  the  trial  was  that  Sacheverell  was  de- 
clared guilty  by  a  majority  of  eighty-two  to  sixty-nine.  He  was 
sentenced  to  be  suspended  for  three  years,  and  his  books  to  be  pub- 
licly burned.  The  issue  was,  in  fact,  a  triumph  for  his  party. 
The  queen  secretly  favored  him  ;  the  mob  shouted  for  his  cause ; 
the  high-church  party  stood  by  him,  though  they  despised  him  in 
their  hearts. 

The  result  of  the  trial  was,  as  might  have  been  foreseen,  an 
explosion  of  mob  violence.  The  cavalcade  which  had  waited  on 
this  inflated  tool  of  a  party  on  his  way  to  and  from  Westminster 
Hall,  after  escorting  Sacheverell  to  his  house  in  the  Temple,  dis- 
persed themselves  over  London,  and  proceeded  to  violence.  They 
attacked  seven  meeting-houses;  amongst  the  rest.  Meeting-house 
Court,  Blackfriars  and  Fetter-lane,  demolishing  pulpits,  pews  and 
galleries,  and  making  bonfires  of  such  materials  in  the  streets, 
amidst  huzzaing  and  cries  of  "  High  Church  and  Sacheverell !  " 
They  also  attacked  the  houses  of  Mr.  Burgess  and  Mr.  Earle,  and 
bore  off  or  destroyed  their  furniture  and  books,  and  were  with  dif- 


340 


HIGH   CHURCH. 


ficulty  restrained  from  setting  fire  to  one  of  the  houses.  Dissent- 
ers were  insulted  in  the  streets  and  in  their  dwellings.  The  houses 
of  the  leading  whig  partisans  were  also  threatened.=^ 

Nor  did  the  consequences  of  this  most  injudicious  impeachment 
Btop  here.  Sacheverell  made  a  triumphant  progress  through  the 
kingdom  was  everywhere  hailed  as  a  martyr,  and  almost  wor- 
shipped as  a  demi-god.  He  dispensed  his  blessings  with  the  air  of 
the  Vatican ;  became  the  toast  at  the  dinner-table,  and  the  idol  of 
weak  women  ;  lived  in  immoderate  luxury ;  and,  when  the  imme- 
diate excitement  had  passed,  fell  into  the  contempt  and  oblivion 
he  deserved,  t 

In  Wrexham  the  effigies  of  the  dissenting  ministers  were 
dressed  up,  paraded  through  the  streets,  and  publicly  burned.  In 
the  same  place,  Hoadly,  who,  though  the  champion  of  episcopacy, 
was  the  advocate  of  liberal  principles,  was  represented  in  effigy, 
baptized  with  much  ceremony,  carried  with  a  rope  round  his  neck, 
Bcourged,  pilloried,  drowned. 


MEETINa   HOUSE   OF   MATTHEW   HENRY,    CHESTER. 

In  the   following  election,  the  same  tumults  were  repeated. 

*  Calamy's  life  and  Times,  yoI.  ii.,  p.  228. 

t  See  Duchess  of  Marlborough's  Correspondence,  vol.  ii.,  p.  142. 


HIGH    CHURCH.  '  341 

Amongst  other  towns  visited  in  this  connection  was  Chester,  the 
residence  of  one  to  whose  character  and  writings  the  Christian 
world  is  inconceivably  indebted  —  Matthew  Henry.  Henry  well 
knew  what  intolerance  meant.  He  was  born  in  the  year  of  the 
passing  of  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  and  he  saw  its  pressure  upon  his 
father  during  the  first  years  of  his  life,  and  felt  it  himself  during 
the  latter.  His  ancient  chapel,  yet  standing,  demonstrates  by  its 
very  position,  shut  in  as  it  is  from  the  street,  with  its  windows 
well  guarded  by  shutters,  the  tenure  upon  which  dissenters  at  that 
time  held  their  sanctuaries.  Such  precautions  are  very  common  in 
the  sanctuaries  of  the  old  nonconformists. 

In  Chester,  Sacheverell's  mob  was  so  furious,  that  Henry,  though 
he  gave  his  vote  according  to  his  conscience,  durst  not  appear  in 
public,  and  was  compelled  to  forego  his  attendance  on  a  funeral,  and 
to  omit  the  funeral  sermon  which  was  to  have  been  preached  on 
the  occasion.  The  returned  members  were  heralded  in  their  pro- 
cession by  the  figure  of  Dr.  Sacheverell. 

The  feeling  thus  excited  led  to  the  dissolution  of  the  whig  min- 
istry of  the  day.  The  contrast  between  the  agitation  of  the  coun- 
try on  this  occasion,  and  the  insignificance  of  the  individual  who 

caused  it, 

"  Resembles  ocean  into  tempest  tost, 
To  waft  a  feather,  or  to  dro-wn  a  fly."  * 

In  consequence  of  the  trial  of  Sacheverell,  high-church  addresses 
flowed  in  upon  the  queen  from  all  quarters,  beginning  with  the 
city  of  London.  Some  of  them  asserted  the  doctrine  of  non-resist- 
ance in  the  most  unqualified  terms.  On  this  Defoe  asks,  "  Would 
any  man  that  had  seen  the  temper  of  the  people,  in  the  time  of  the 
late  King  James,  believe  it  possible,  without  a  judicial  infatuation, 
that  the  same  peoph  should  reassume  their  blindness,  and  rise  up 
again  for  bondage  ?  Never,  since  the  children  of  Israel  demanded 
to  go  back  and  make  bricks  without  straw,  and  to  feed  on  onions 
and  garlic,  was  any  nation  in  the  world  so  sordid,  and  so  unac- 
countably bewitched ! "  t 

*  Young.  f  Review,  vol.  vii.,  p.  107. 

29^ 


342  HIGH    CHUKCH. 

As  the  reign  of  Anne  drew  towards  its  close,  the  bill  to  forbid 
occasional  conformity,  and  by  this  means  to  prevent  dissenters  from 
occupying  civil  ofl&ces,  which  had  been  three  times  refused  by^  the 
lords,  was  passed  almost  without  a  murmur.  Encouraged  by  the 
success  of  this  movement,  Bolingbroke  and  Atterbury  instigated 
"  the  Schism  Bill."  This  was  a  prohibition  of  collegiate  and  other 
dissenting  institutions,  under  heavy  penalties.  "  By  virtue  of  this 
act,  nonconformists  teaching  school  were  to  be  imprisoned  three 
months.  Each  schoolmaster  was  to  receive  the  sacrament,  and 
take  the  oaths.  If  afterwards  present  at  a  conventicle,  he  was 
incapacitated,  and  liable  to  be  imprisoned.  He  must  teach  only 
the  Church  Catechism.  But  offenders  conforming  were  recapaci- 
tated ;  and  schools  for  reading,  writing  and  mathematics,  were, 
after  a  warm  debate,  excepted.'"^  The  bill,  in  spite  of  great  ex- 
ertions on  the  part  of  the  nonconformists,  passed  both  houses,  and 
received  the  royal  assent.  It  was  designed  to  follow  it  by  another, 
declaring  all  dissenters  in  the  kingdom  unfit  to  vote  in  the  election 
of  members  of  parliament.  But  the  queen's  decease  happily  pre- 
vented this  dangerous  issue.  She  died  on  the  very  day  that  the 
Schism  Act  was  to  have  taken  effect.  "  0,  that  glorious  first  of 
August !  "  said  Dr.  Benson,  in  a  sermon  preached  at  Salter's  Hall, 
"  that  most  signal  day,  never  to  be  forgot !  "  The  queen's  death 
prevented  the  further  ascendency  of  Lord  Bolingbroke,  and  rescued 
protestant  dissenters ! 

♦  Calamy's  Life  and  Times,  vol.  ii.,  p.  283. 


CHAPTER    XII. 


THE   WILL   MINUS   THE   POWER. 


"Letting  *  I  dare  not '  wait  upon  •  I  would.'  "  —  Shakspearb. 


HE  name  of  Dr.  Doddridge  is  one  on 
which  all  who  have  sympathy  with  the 
generous,  the  benevolent  and  the  devout, 
will  ever  delight  to  linger.  Though 
deeply  engraven  in  the  annals  of  prot- 
estant  nonconformity,  it  is  the  exclusive 
property  of  no  creed.  Doddridge  was 
no  genius,  in  the  ordinary  acceptation  of 
the  word,  and  no  one  thing  which  he  did 
transcended  other  things  of  a  similar 
kind  done  by  others.  His  learning  has 
been  often  surpassed  ;  his  pulpit  oratory  was  not  resplendent ;  his 
poetry,  though  pleasing,  bore  no  traces  of  inspiration ;  his  power 
over  the  minds  of  others  was  not  supreme.  Yet  there  was  in  him 
such  a  combination  of  excellences  as  to  lift  him  at  once  out  of  all 
vulgar  mediocrity.  Commencing  with  a  youth  which  was  fuller 
of  a  sportive  playfulness  than  can  be  comprehended  by  the  dull, 
and  which  exposed  him  to  reproof  from  the  cynical,  though  it  was 
remote  from  vice  and  abhorrent  from  hypocrisy,  the  growth  of  his 
character  was  like  the  gradual  ripening  of  a  rich  harvest,  at  length 
reaching  the  point  of  full  maturity  and  ample  abundance.  The 
diligence  of  his  self-cultivation,  the  integrity  of  his  heart  and 
frankness  of  his  manners,  the  variety  of  his  attainments,  the 
judiciousness  and  pertinence  of  his  conduct,  and  his  unwearied 
industry,  all  united  to  fervor  of  devotion  and  an  insatiable  thirst 


344  THE  WILL  MINUS  THE  POWER. 

for  usefulness  which  have  never  been  surpassed,  give  him  a  just 
claim  to  be  regarded  as  belonging  to  the  first  rank  among  those 
whost  nobility  will  be  the  most  conspicuous,  and  whose  honors  the 
most  enduring. 

Such  have  been  the  thoughts  of  many,  as  they  have  looked 
upon  the  pleasant  and  well-built  town  of  Northampton.  Not  a 
few  have  probably  directed  their  first  inquiries,  on  entering  it,  to 
the  vestiges  of  the  author  of  "  The  Family  Expositor,"  and  of 
"  The  Kise  and  Progress  of  Religion  in  the  Soul." 

Doddridge's  meeting-house  still  stands  on  the  Castle-hill,  —  a 
spot  not  to  be  visited  without  a  crowd  of  historical  reminiscences. 
Northampton  is  well  known  as  one  of  our  oldest  fortified  towns, 
dating  from  a  period,  at  latest,  soon  after  that  of  the  Conquest. 
Compared  with  Windsor  or  with  Nottingham,  there  is  nothing  in 
its  appearance  which  would  seem  to  claim  eminence  for  it.  It  has 
no  bold,  projecting,  almost  inaccessible  rock,  and  the  river  which 
flows  through  it  is  far  from  imposing.  But  the  town  is  built 
upon  very  high  ground,  and  the  Castle-hill,  which  is  a  considerable 
elevation,  overlooks  a  marshy  tract,  calculated  to  give  great  secu- 
rity to  its  ancient  fortress.  As  we  stand  upon  this  hill,  what 
crowds  of  varied  historical  associations  rush  upon  the  mind! 
Beauty  and  chivalry,  conquest  and  defeat,  tales  of  joy  and  sor- 
row, empires  lost  and  won,  have  dated  from  this  spot  their  all- 
varying  fortunes.  It  was  here  that  one  of  the  most  celebrated 
scenes  occurred  in  the  contest  waged  by  Henry  II.  with  the  Roman 
hierarchy,  when  that  king,  under  the  constitutions  of  Clarendon, 
cited  Thomas  u  Beckett  to  appear  before  a  council  of  the  states, 
and  when  the  primate,  blazing  in  all  the  splendors  of  his  archie- 
piscopal  pomp,  refused  to  submit  to  the  royal  jurisdiction  ;  and  it 
was  from  this  town  that  Beckett  fled,  in  the  disguise  of  a  monk,  to 
take  refuge  in  Flanders.  It  was  here  that  King  John  was  be- 
sieged by  his  barons ;  and  here  that  the  same  king  met  the  papal 
nuncios,  by  whom,  failing  to  make  sufficient  concessions,  he  was 
excommunicated.  Here,  also,  Henry  III.  besieged  his  factious 
barons,  under  the  conduct  of  the  younger  De  Montfort.     Here  was 


THE   WILL   MINUS    THE   POWER.  345 

held  the  splendid  court  of  Edward  I. ;  and  through  this  town  the 
king  followed  his  beloved  Eleanor.  Here,  too,  a  parliament  was 
held,  to  consider  the  coronation  and  marriage  of  Edward  II.  Be- 
neath these  walls  Henry  VI.  lost  his  kingdom  in  a  battle  with  the 
Earl  of  Warwick.  The  poll-tax,  which  occasioned  the  insurrection 
of  Wat  Tyler,  was  passed  by  a  parliament  assembling  in  this  town. 
It  was  in  this  castle  that  Richard  III.  determined  to  seize  the 
crown  of  England  from  the  infant  hands  of  Edward  V.  Eliza- 
beth, Charles  I.,  Cromwell,  Charles  II.,  all  have  their  memorials 
here.  The  castle  was  demolished  in  the  year  1662 ;  and  though 
a  few  remains  of  the  ancient  building  exist,  its  principal  site  is 
now  occupied  by  edifices  of  a  less  imposing  and  more  peaceful 
character. 

"  Time  has  seen,  — that  lifts  the  low, 

And  level  lays  the  lofty  brow,  — 

Has  seen  this  broken  pile  complete. 

Big  with  the  vanities  of  state. 

A  little  rale,  a  little  sway, 

A  sunbeam  in  a  winter's  day, 

Is  all  the^oud  and  mighty  have, 

Between  the  cradle  and  the  grave."  * 

We  think  with  pleasure  how  the  spot,  once  resounding  with  the 
histories  of  the  great,  is  now  consecrated  by  the  memory  of  the 
good. 

It  was  after  a  considerable  conflict  of  opposite  emotions,  ihat 
Doddridge,  then  twenty-seven  years  of  age,  came,  in  the  year 
1729,  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  his  duty  to  settle  at  North- 
ampton ;  and  it  was  within  the  walls  of  the  Castle-street  meeting- 
house that,  during  twenty-two  years,  he  fulfilled  the  duties  of  a 
"  good  and  faithful  servant."  His  chapel,  which  would  be  deemed 
a  large  one  for  that  period,  is  neat  and  commodious ;  and,  though 
the  lower  part  of  it  has  been  considerably  renovated,  the  pulpit 
and  the  pewing  of  the  galleries  are  still  unchanged.  A  marble 
monument,  in  the  most  profuse  style  of  mural  decoration,  bears  an 

*  Prior. 


346  THE    WILL   MINUS   THE    POWER. 

inscription  to  the  memory  of  Doddridge,  more  verbose  than  pow- 
erful. 

But  there  is  no  part  of  this  building  altogether  so  interesting  to 
the  visitor  as  the  vestry.  Here  are  the  chair  in  which  Doddridge 
:sat ;  the  table  at  which  he  wrote  his  "  Expositor ;  "  the  original 
invitation  addressed  to  him  to  become  the  pastor  of  the  church, 
with  his  reply  ;  the  drawing  of  the  monument  erected  to  his  mem- 
ory in  the  cemetery  of  Lisbon,  where  he  died.  These  walls  have 
been,  doubtless,  familiar  with  many  of  those  communings  of  ardent 
devotion  which  rendered  him  so  powerful  in  the  pulpit  and  from 
the  press ;  and  here  he  often  verified  the  sentiment,  that  "  Soli- 
tude has  nothing  gloomy  in  it  when  the  soul  points  upwards." 

When  Doddridge  undertook  —  as  he  did  immediately  before  his 
coming  to  Northampton  —  the  formation  of  a  dissenting  academy, 
the  course  was  not  without  its  perils.  This  aspect  of  the  case  pre- 
sented itself  to  the  mind  of  Dr.  Watts,  who  was  consulted  re- 
specting the  project.  "Are  the  hands  of  enemies,"  writes  Watts, 
"  so  effectually  chained  up  from  offering  us  any  violence,  that  they 
cannot  indict  or  persecute  you,  under  i^  pretence  that  your  acad- 
emy is  a  school  ?  "  =^ 

There  were  sufficient  reasons  for  such  a  question.  Since  the 
Restoration,  the  nonconformists  had  been  excluded  from  the  ben- 
efit of  the  English  universities,  and  their  schools  had  been  con- 
ducted in  private,  under  the  management  of  such  individuals  as 
were  considered  competent.  One  of  the  most  eminent  establish- 
ments was  conducted  by  Mr.  Morton,  at  Newington  Green.  At 
this  school  Defoe,  Samuel  Wesley,  and  many  ministers,  received 
their  first  training.  Another  was  under  the  discipline  of  Mr. 
Kerr,  of  Bethnal  Green.  But  these  seminaries  did  not  pass  unmo- 
iested.  Morton  was  exposed  to  perpetual  annoyances  from  spies 
and  informers  ;  till,  at  length,  worn  out  by  vexations,  he  abandoned 
his  country,  and  took  refuge  in  New  England.  A  little  later,  a 
still  more  eminent  establishment  was  kept  by  Mr.  Doolittle,  who 
preached  at  Monkwell-street,  and  lived  at  Islington.     Many  men 

*  Doddridge's  Correspondence,  vol.  ii.,  p.  481. 


TUE    WILL   MINUS    THE   P0'\^  ER.  847 

of  considerable  nonconformist  eminence  received  their  education 
under  his  roof;  amongst  the  rest,  Matthew  Henry  and  Dr.  Cal- 
amy.  But  he  was  compelled  also  to  break  up  his  establishment  at 
Islington,  and  to  remove  first  to  Battersea,  and  afterwards  to  Clerk- 
enwell.=^  Indeed,  no  dissenter  could  at  that  time  exercise  the  func- 
tions of  a  teacher  without  exposing  himself  to  dangerous  penalties. 
Boger  Bosen,  for  teaching  a  few  little  children  to  read,  was  cited 
to  Chester,  excommunicated,  and  was  in  great  danger  of  starvation. 

In  one  of  these  academies,  —  that,  namely,  kept  by  Morton, — 
Samuel  Wesley,  father  of  the  celebrated  founder  of  Methodism, 
received,  as  we  have  said,  his  education.  A  book,  bearing  his 
name,  but  published  probably  without  his  consent  or  authority, 
was  put  forth,  which  contained  severe  strictures  on  the  mode  of 
education  adi^pted  by  protestant  dissenters.  The  work  drew  forth 
a  reply,  to  which  Wesley  added  a  rejoinder,  containing  severe 
reflections  on  the  nonconforming  body.  This  was  a  cruel  blow, 
especially  at  a  time  when  dissenters  with  difficulty  maintained  a 
tolerated  position.  "  When  all  is  done,  gentlemen,"  said  Defoe,  in 
his  strictures  on  the  work,  "  why  do  we  erect  private  academies, 
and  teach  our  children  by  themselves  ?  Even  for  the  same  reason 
that  we  do  not  communicate  with  you,  because  you  shut  us  out  by 
imposing  unreasonable  terms.  ^  ^  But  while  you  shut  our 
children  out  of  your  schools,  never  quarrel  at  our  teaching  them 
at  those  of  our  own,  or  sending  them  into  foreign  countries;  since, 
wherever  they  are  taught,  they  generally  get  a  share  of  learning 
at  least  equal  to  yourselves,  and,  we  hope,  partake  of  as  much  hon- 
esty ;  —  and,  as  to  their  performances,  match  them,  and  outpreach 
them,  if  you  can.     I  wish  that  was  the  only  strife  between  us." 

The  Schism  Bill,  as  we  have  seen,  gave  new  effect  to  this  position 
of  affairs.  But,  on  the  death  of  Queen  Anne,  the  measure,  though 
passed,  sank  into  oblivion,  as  no  lawyer,  who  hoped  for  favor  from 
the  court,  would  enforce  its  penalties.  It  was  repealed  by  5  Geo. 
1.  Severe,  however,  as  the  Schism  Bill  was,  it  had  been  far  out- 
done by  the  measure  promoted  by  the  Long  Parliamen^t,  which 

*  Calamy's  Life  and  Times,  vol.  i.,  pp.  113 — 138. 


348  THE   WILL   MINUS   THE    POWER. 

provided  that  none  but  a  protestant  should  educate  the  children 
of  papists. 

Even  after  the  accession  of  the  house  of  Hanover,  occasional 
riots,  stimulated  by  the  party  who  were  favorable  to  the  Pretender, 
menaced  the  dissenters  in  various  parts  of  the  kingdom,  and  were 
stimulated  by  a  celebrated  sermon,  preached  March  31,  1717,  by 
Bishop  Hoadley,  on  the  nature  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  in  which 
he  asserted  "  that  Christ  is  the  sole  law-giver  to  his  subjects,  and 
the  sole  judge  of  their  behavior  in  the  affairs  of  conscience  and 
eternal  salvation ;  "  and  that,  "  to  set  up  any  other  authority  in 
his  kingdom,  to  which  his  subjects  are  indispensably  obliged  to 
submit  their  consciences  or  conduct  in  what  is  properly  called 
religion,  evidently  destroys  the  rule  and  authority  of  Jesus  Christ 
as  king."  Sherlock  charged  Hoadley  with  endeavoring  to  prepare 
the  way  for  the  repeal  of  the  Test  Act ;  and  the  Convocation 
declared  his  sentiments  subversive  of  all  government  and  discipline 
in  the  church  of  Christ.  This  was  the  last  bo7ia  fide  sitting  of 
this  body.  They  have  never  been  permitted  to  transact  business 
since  that  period. 

Such  were  the  circumstances  under  which  Doddridge  first  insti- 
tuted, on  his  settlement  at  Northampton,  his  academy.  He  was, 
in  many  respects,  in  a  favorable  position  for  doing  so.  The  dis- 
senters were  in  high  favor  at  court,  and  their  adversaries  in  a 
position  of  declining  influence.  But  they  had,  on  many  occasions, 
given  great  annoyance  to  Doddridge  and  his  students,  and  at 
length  they  proceeded  to  systematic  hostility.  At  a  visitation  in 
Northampton,  in  the  year  1752,  Reynolds,  the  chancellor,  told  the 
church- wardens  of  Doddridge's  parish  "  that  he  was  informed  that 
there  was  a  fellow  in  this  parish  who  taught  a  grammar-school,  as 
he  supposed,  without  any  license  from  the  bishop,"  and  commanded 
them,  if  they  found  such  to  be  the  fact,  to  present  Doddridge,  that 
he  might  be  prosecuted  according  to  law.  Nor  was  such  a  pros- 
ecution in  those  days  an  unusual  event ;  for  Doddridge  tells  us  that 
he  knew  twenty  such  attempts  within  less  than  so  many  yciirs. 
Whilst  this  case  was  pending  in  the  ecclesiastical  court,  and  at  the 
time  of  a  general  election,  in  which  a  Jacobite  member  was  re- 


THE   WILL   MINUS   THE    POWER.  3-19 

turned,  a  riotous  attack  was  made  on  Doddridge's  house,  which 
was  connived  at  by  the  mayor  of  the  town. 


DODDUIDGK'S    house,  NORTHAMPTON. 

By  the  express  intervention  of  George  II,,  who  declared  that, 
in  his  reign,  there  should  be  no  persecution,  the  suit  was  quashed. 

Were  our  volume  of  a  nature  which  would  expand  according  to 
the  materials  which  lie  before  us,  it  might  be  interesting  to  give  a 
detailed  account  of  many  recent  movements,  memorable  in  the 
struggle  for  religious  liberty,  which  we  must  now  pass  over  in  a 
brief  summary. 

The  doctrine  of  the  alliance  of  church  and  state,  as  understood 
by  the  inferior  magistrates,  proved,  on  many  occasions,  no  incon- 
siderable annoyance  to  the  early  methodists,  although  their  pro- 
fessed relation  to  the  Church  of  England,  and  the  decisive  measures 
which  were  adopted  at  court,  prevented  any  systematic  persecu- 
tion. It  was  to  the  honor  of  Doddridge,  Lardner  and  other  dis- 
senters, that  they  opposed,  in  the  case  of  Woollston,  the  deist,  any 
lecourse  to  the  civil  power,  in  order  to  put  down  his  pernicious 
opinions.  The  quakers  showed,  in  a  petition  to  parliament,  that 
they  were  still  liable  to  severe  exactions  in  consequence  of  their 
religious  opinions,  but  failed  in  obtaining  relief.  The  Test  and 
Corporation  Acts  still  continued.  In  1748  a  law  passed  the  city 
of  London,  enforcing  on  every  person  who  refused  to  act  as  sheriff, 
when  nominated  by  the  mayor,  a  fine  of  upwards  of  four  hundred 
pounds,  and  six  hundred  pounds  on  every  one  who  refused  to  serve 
when  elec'-^d  by  the  common  hall.  Fifteen  thousand  pounds  were 
30 


330 


THE    -WILL    MINUS   THE   TOWER. 


collected  by  this  means,  —  a  sum  which  was  appropriated  to  the 
building  of  the  present  Mansion  House.  The  speech  of  Lord 
Mansfield  in  the  House  of  Lords,  when  certain  dissenters  at  length 
resolved  to  dispute  the  validity  of  this  ordinance,  will  be  long 
remembered  to  his  honor. 

The  progress  of  dissenting  liberty  during  the  reign  of  Geo.  III. 
and  his  successors,  the  contests  respecting  the  Corporation  and 
Test  Acts,  and  Catholic  Emancipation,  which  were  terminated  in 
1828  and  1829  by  the  repeal  of  those  oppressive  enactments,  the 
bill  of  Lord  Sidmouth,  in  1811,  which  sought  to  limit  "  the  lib- 
erty of  prophesying  "  by  demanding  securities  of  dissenting  minis- 
ters, and  which  was  resisted  and  defeated  by  the  whole  body  of  thr 
nonconformists,  are  incidents  which  belong,  indeed,  to  this  volume 
but  which  are  matters  of  such  modern  history  as  scarcely  to  need 
repetition.  The  spirit  of  an  establishment  is,  we  thankfully  own, 
becoming  every  day  more  enlarged  and  tolerant ;  but  until  —  all 
bounties  and  penalties  apart  —  the  state  shall  retire  within  the 
province  which  alone  she  can  legitimately  occupy,  and  until  the 
rights  of  man  shall  be  as  distinctly  acknowledged  in  the  meanest 
dissenter  who  worships  in  his  barn  as  in  the  haughtiest  churchman 
who  wears  his  mitre,  the  war  for  religious  liberty  will  not  be  ended. 

History  has  been  well  designated  "philosophy  teaching  by 
examples."  The  reader  of  the  foregoing  pages  *is  invited,  before 
he  lays  down  the  volume,  to  glance  at  the  kind  of  philosophy 
deducible  from  its  illustrations. 

He  has  seen  the  civil  sword  wielded  by  the  magistrate  in  pro- 
fessed defence  of  religion,  in  successive  and  very  different  periods. 
By  Romanism,  by  Lutheranism,  by  Arminianism,  by  Presbyteri- 
anism,  sometimes  conjoined  with  Independency,  and  sometimes 
pure ;  and,  since  the  accession  of  the  house  of  Hanover,  by  a 
system  gradually  approximating  to  Erastianism. 

He  has  learned  that  the  state  church  and  the  true  church  are 
by  no  means  identical.  We  do  not  say  that  the  one  has  never 
included  a  portion  of  the  other,  but  that  the  one  has  never  been  a 
fair  representative  of  the  other.     Whatever  the  reader's  religious 


THE  WILL  MINUS  THE  POWER.  351 

opinions  may  happen  to  be,  he  cannot  but  mark  certain  periods  in 
which  error,  and  not  truth,  has  been  armed  with  civil  power.  The 
Romanist  cannot  believe  the  state  church  to  be  the  true  church 
when  it  is  protestant,  nor  the  protestant  when  it  is  Romanistic. 
Whether  the  reader  be  a  presbyterian,  or  a  baptist,  or  a  unitarian, 
or  a  friend,  or  an  independent,  he  cannot  but  remember  periods 
in  which  the  state  church,  so  far  from  being  identical  with  the 
true  church,  has  done  its  utmost  to  weaken  and  to  destroy  it,  by 
bounty  on  the  one  hand,  and  by  penalty  on  the  other ;  sometimes 
by  fine ;  sometimes  by  imprisonment ;  sometimes  by  banishment ; 
sometimes  by  torture ;  sometimes  by  death.  Let  him,  then, 
remember  that  a  state  church,  so  far  from  being  necessarily  a 
friend  to  true  religion,  has  been  often  its  most  virulent  and  deadly 
enemy  ! 

But  the  reader  will  see  more.  If  he  be  a  man  of  candor  and 
piety,  he  will  see  that  those  periods  in  which  a  state  church  has 
been  most  dominant  are  not  the  periods  fixed  upon  by  any  party 
as  worthy  of  the  highest  complacency.  What  frank  Romanist 
delights  in  Hildebrand  and  Innocent  III.,  or  in  the  memory  of 
Queen  Mary  and  James  II.  ?  What  pious  episcopalian  will 
endorse  the  acts  of  Laud  and  Strafford,  of  Lauderdale  and  Sa- 
cheverell  ?  What  presbyterian  vindicates  the  principles  —  as  a 
whole  —  of  the  covenanters  ?  Just  in  proportion  as  the  state  alli- 
ance is  a  reality,  and  not  a  name,  men  shrink  from  glorying  in  it. 
Can  any  circumstances  be  more  suspicious,  or  more  suggestive  ? 

On  the  contrary,  with  a  few  distinguished  exceptions,  the  best 
men  of  every  party  have  always  been  those  who  have  either  been 
frowned  on  by  the  state  church,  or  else  have  stood  far  away  from 
its  vortex.  Fenelon  and  Pascal;  Wilson,  Leighton,  Scott,  New- 
ton ;  Baxter,  Blackader,  Howe,  the  Henrys ;  Penn,  Fry,  Clark- 
son  ;  Robinson,  Nye,  Watts,  Doddridge ;  Kiffin,  Bunyan,  White- 
field,  Wesley,  were  men  who,  whatever  doctrines  they  avowed, 
were  in  no  position  to  exercise  civil  power  for  any  piolonged  pe- 
riod ;  or,  if  they  were,  tarnished  by  that  means  something  of  their 
lustre.  So  far  is  it  from  being  true  that  a  state  church  is  necessary 
to  the  vitality  of  the  religious  system  with  which  we  most  agree  ! 


352  THE  WILL  MINUS  THE  POWER. 

The  conclusion  is  that,  so  far  from  the  removal  of  its  state 
machinery  being  injurious  to  the  true  church,  that  removal  is, 
all  other  things  being  equal,  the  surest  means  of  confirming  and 
advancing  it. 

Advance,  then,  we  say,  advance  the  true  church !  Advance  it, 
by  displaying  its  legitimate  and  spiritual  character!  Advance  it, 
by  disencumbering  it  of  its  useless  and  worthless  formalism! 
Advance  it,  by  removing  from  its  administration  men  who  do  not 
sympathize  with  its  high  objects,  nor  comprehend  its  gentle  spirit ! 
Advance  it,  by  making  it  the  friend  of  all,  and  the  enemy  of  none! 
Advance  it,  by  raising  it  to  an  eminence  whence,  without  inter- 
fering with  their  just  prerogative,  it  may  observe,  and  teach  and 
pray,  for  the  powers  and  dominions  of  this  world !  Advance  it, 
that,  instead  of  bearing  the  mockery  of  a  self-denying  name,  it 
may  be  a  sublime  reality,  comprehending  within  its  range  those 
whom  no  law  can  define,  and  excluding  from  its  bosom  those  whom 
no  earthly  penitence  can  silence ! 

We  are  deeply  aware  that,  to  aid  in  this  issue,  other  and  more 
spiritual  processes  are  requisite.  Far  be  it  from  us  to  scorn  at 
them.  But,  whatever  else  is  important,  this  surely  is :  to  assert 
ft  r  the  religion  of  the  gospel,  for  it  alone  can  sustain  such  a  demand, 
a  Divine  right  —  a  Divine  right  superior  to  all  human  law ! 


OLD  i'OUNDEUY   MEETIXG,    CITY   ROAD,    THE   SCENE   OF   WESLEy'S   FIRST    LABOKS. 


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Mechanics,  Useful  Arts,  Natural  Philosophy,  Chemistry,  Astronomy,  Meteorology, 
Zoology,  Botany,  Mineralogy,  Geology,  Geography,  Antiquities,  etc.  ;  together  with  a  list 
of  recent  Scientific  Publications,  a  classified  list  of  Patents,  Obituaries  of  eminent  Scien- 
tific Men,  an  Index  of  important  Papers  in  Scientific  Journals,  Reports,  &c.  Edited  by 
David  A  Wells,  A.  M.     12mo,  cloth,  1,25 

This  work,  commenced  in  the  year  1850,  and  issued  on  the  first  of  March  annually,  contains  all 
important  facts  discovered  or  announced  during  the  year.  Each  volume  is  distinct  in  itself,  and  con- 
tains entirely  new  matter,  with  a  fine  portrait  of  some  distinguished  scientific  man.  As  it  is  not  in- 
tended exclusively  for  scientific  men,  but  to  meet  the  wants  of  the  general  reader,  it  has  been  the  aim 
of  the  editor  that  the  articles  should  be  brief,  and  intelligible  to  all.  The  editor  has  received  the  appro- 
bation, counsel,  and  personal  contributions  of  the  prominent  scientific  men  throughout  the  country. 

THE  FOOTPRINTS  OF  THE  CREATOR ;  or,  The  Asterolepis  of 
Stromness.  With  numerous  Illustrations.  By  Hugh  Miller,  author  of  "  The  Old  Red 
Sandstone,"  &c.  From  the  third  London  Edition.  With  a  Memoir  of  the  Author,  by 
Louis  Agassiz.    12mo,  cloth,  1,00. 

Dr.  BucKLAND,  at  a  meeting  of  the  British  Association,  said  he  had  never  been  so  much  aston- 
ished in  his  life,  by  the  powers  of  any  man,  as  he  had  been  by  the  geological  descriptions  of  Mr.  Miller. 
That  wonderful  man  described  these  objects  with  a  facility  which  made  him  ashamed  of  the  com- 
parative meagreness  and  poverty  of  his  own  descriptions  in  the  "  Bridgewater  Treatise,"  which  had 
cost  him  hours  and  days  of  labor.  He  would  give  his  left  hand  to  possess  such  powers  of  description 
as  this  man :  and  if  it  pleased  Providence  to  spare  his  useful  life,  he,  if  any  one,  would  certainly  ren- 
der science  attractive  and  popular,  and  do  equal  service  to  theology  and  geology. 

Mr.  Miller's  style  is  remarkably  pleasing ;  his  mode  of  popularizing  geological  knowledge  unsur- 
passed, perhaps  unequalled ;  and  the  deep  reverence  for  divine  revelation  pervading  all  adds  inter- 
est and  value  to  the  volume.  —  N.  Y.  Com.  Advertiser. 

The  publishers  have  again  covered  themselves  with  honor,  by  giving  to  the  American  public,  with 
the  author's  permission,  an  elegant  reprint  of  a  foreign  work  of  science.  "We  earnestly  bespeak  for 
this  work  a  wide  and  free  circulation  among  all  who  love  science  much  and  religion  more.  —  Puri- 
tan Recorder. 

THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE;  or,  New  Walks  in  an  Old  Field.  By 
Hugh  Miller.     Illustrated  with  Plates  and  Geological  Sections.     12mo,  cloth,  1,00. 

Mr.  Miller's  exceedingly  interesting  book  on  this  formation  is  just  the  sort  of  work  to  render  any 
subject  popular.  It  is  written  in  a  remarkably  pleasing  style,  and  contains  a  wonderful  amount  of 
information.  —  Westminster  Review. 

It  is,  withal,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  specimens  of  English  composition  to  be  found,  conveying 
information  on  a  most  difficult  and  profound  science,  in  a  style  at  once  novel,  pleasing,  and  elegant 
It  contains  the  results  of  twenty  years'  close  observation  and  experiment,  resulting  in  an  accumulation 
of  facts  which  not  only  dissipate  some  dark  and  knotty  old  theories  with  regard  to  ancient  formations, 
but  establish  the  great  truths  of  geology  in  more  perfect  and  harmonious  consistency  with  the  great 
truth!  of  revelation.  —  Albany  Spectator.  A 


VALUABLE    WOEK. 

CYCLOPAEDIA  OF  ANECDOTES  OF  LITERATURE  AND  THE 

FINE  ARTS.  Containing  a  copious  and  choice  selection  of  Anecdotes  of  the  various 
forms  of  Literature,  of  tlie  Arts,  of  Architecture,  Engravings,  Music,  Poetry,  Painting, 
and  Sculpture,  and  of  the  most  celebrated  Literary  Characters  and  Artists  of  diflercnt 
Countries  and  Ages,  &c.  By  Kazlitt  Arvine,  A.  AL,  Author  of"  Cycloposdia  of  Moral 
and  Religious  Anecdotes."    With  numerous  illustrations.    725  pages  octavo,  cloth,  3,00. 

This  is  unquestionably  the  choicest  collection  of  anecdotes  ever  published.  It  contains  three  thou- 
sand and  forty  Anecdotes,  many  of  them  articles  of  interest,  containing  reading  matter  equal  to  half  a 
dozen  pages  of  a  common  li'mo.  volume ;  and  such  is  the  wonderful  variety,  that  it  will  be  found  an 
almost  inexhaustible  fund  of  interest  for  every  class  of  readers.  The  elaborate  classification  and  in- 
dexes must  commend  it,  especially  to  public  speakers,  to  the  various  classes  of  literary  and  scientific 
men,  to  artists,  mechanics,  and  others,  as  a  DiCTiONAKV,/or  reference,  in  relation  to  facts  on  the  num- 
berless subjects  and  characters  introduced.  There  are  also  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  fine 
Illustrations. 

"We  know  of  no  work  which  in  the  same  space  comprises  so  much  valuable  information  in  a  form 
BO  entertaining,  and  so  well  adapted  to  make  an  indelible  impression  upon  the  mind.  It  must  become 
a  standard  work,  and  be  ranked  among  the  few  books  which  arc  indispensable  to  every  complete 
library.—  If.  Y.  Chronicle. 

Here  is  a  perfect  repository  of  the  most  choice  nnd  approved  specimens  of  this  species  of  informa- 
tion, selected  witli  the  greatest  care  from  all  sources,  ancient  and  modern.  The  work  is  replete  with 
Buch  entertainment  as  is  adapted  to  all  grades  of  readers,  the  most  or  least  intellectuaL  —  Methodist 
Quarterly  Magazine. 

One  of  the  most  complete  things  of  the  kind  ever  given  to  the  public.  There  is  scarcely  a  paragraph 
in  the  wliole  l)ook  which  will  not  interest  some  one  deeply  ;  for,  wliilc  men  of  letters,  argument,  and 
art  cannot  afford  to  do  without  its  immense  fund  of  sound  maxims,  pungent  wit,  apt  illustrations,  and 
brilUant  examples,  the  merchant,  mechanic  and  laborer  will  find  it  one  of  the  choicest  companions  of 
the  hours  of  relaxation.  "  Whatever  be  the  mood  of  one's  mind,  and  however  limited  the  time  for 
reading,  in  the  almost  endless  variety  and  great  brevity  of  the  articles  he  can  find  something  to  suit 
his  feelings,  which  lie  can  begin  and  end  at  once.  It  may  also  be  made  the  very  life  of  the  social  circle, 
containing  pleasant  reading  for  all  ages,  at  all  times  and  seasons.  —  Bujj'alo  Commercial  Advertiser. 

A  well  spring  of  entertainment,  to  be  drawn  from  at  any  moment,  comprising  the  choicest  anecdotes 
of  distinguished  men,  from  the  remotest  period  to  the  present  time.  —  Hangor  Whig. 

A  magnificent  collection  of  anecdotes  touching  literature  and  the  fine  arts.  —  Albany  Spectator. 

This  work,  which  is  the  most  extensive  and  comprehensive  collection  of  anecdotes  ever  published, 
cannot  fail  to  become  highly  popular.  —  Salem  Gazette. 

A  publication  of  which  there  is  little  danger  of  speaking  in  too  flattering  terms  ;  a  perfect  Thesaurus 
of  rare  and  curious  information,  carefully  selected  and  methodically  arranged.  A  jewel  of  a  book  to 
lie  on  one's  table,  to  snatch  up  in  those  brief  moments  of  leisure  that  could  not  be  very  prolitably 
turned  to  account  by  recourse  to  any  connected  work  in  any  department  of  literature.  —  Troy  Budget. 

No  family  ought  to  be  without  it,  for  it  is  at  once  cheap,  valuable,  and  very  interesting ;  containing 
matter  compiled  from  all  kinds  of  books,  from  all  quarters  of  the  globe,  from  all  ages  of  the  world,  and 
in  relation  to  every  corporeal  matter  at  all  wortliy  of  being  remarked  or  remembered.  No  work  has 
been  issued  from  the  press  for  a  number  of  years  for  which  there  was  such  a  manifest  want,  and  we 
are  certain  it  only  needs  to  be  known  to  meet  with  an  immense  sale.  —  iVew  Jersey  Union. 

A  well-pointed  anecdote  is  often  useful  to  illustrate  an  argument,  and  a  memory  well  stored  with  per- 
sonal incidents  enables  the  possessor  to  entertain  Uvely  and  agreeable  conversation.  —  iV'.  1'.  Com. 

A  rich  treasury  of  thought,  and  wit,  and  learning,  illustrating  the  characteristics  and  peculiarities  of 
many  of  the  most  distinguished  names  in  the  history  of  literature  and  the  arts.  —  I'hd.  Chris.  0!>s. 

The  range  of  topics  is  very  wide,  relating  to  nature,  rehgion,  science,  and  art;  furnishing  apposite 
illustrations  for  the  preacher,  the  orator,  the  Sabbath  school  teacher,  and  the  instructors  of  our  com- 
mon schools,  academies,  and  colleges.  It  must  prove  a  valuable  work  for  the  fireside,  as  well  as  for 
the  library,  as  it  is  calculated  to  please  and  edify  all  classes.  —  ZanesviUe  Ch.  Register. 

This  is  one  of  the  most  entei-taining  works  for  desultory  reading  we  have  seen,  and  will  no  doubt 
have  a  very  extensive  circulation.  As  a  most  entertaining  tabic  book,  we  hardly  know  of  any  thing 
at  once  so  instructive  and  amusing.  —  iV.  ¥.  Ch.  iHtclhgcncer.  G 


IMPORTANT     WOEK. 


KITTO'S  POPULAR  CYCLOPEDIA  OF  BIBLICAL  LITERA- 
TURE. Condensed  from  the  larger  work.  By  the  Author,  John  Kitto,  D.  D.,  Author 
of"  Pictorial  Bible,"  "  History  of  Palestine,"  "  Scripture  Daily  Readings,"  fcc.  Assisted 
by  James  Taylor,  D.  D.,  of  Glasgow.  With  over  Jioe  hundred  Illustrations.  One  vol- 
ume octavo,  812  pp.,  cloth,  3,00. 

The  Popular  Biblical  CrcL0P.i=:DiA  of  Literature  is  designed  to  furnish  a  Dictionary 
OF  THE  Bible,  embodying  the  products  of  the  best  and  most  recent  researches  in  bibhcal  literature, 
in  -which  the  scholars  of  Europe  and  America  have  been  engaged.  Tlie  worlt,  the  result  of  immense 
labor  and  research,  and  enriched  by  the  contributions  of  writers  of  distinguislied  eminence  in  the  va- 
rious departments  of  sacred  hterature,  has  been,  by  universal  consent,  pronounced  tlie  best  work  of 
its  class  extant,  and  the  one  best  suited  to  the  advanced  knowledge  of  the  present  day  in  all  the  studies 
connected  with  theological  science.  It  is  not  only  intended  for  miriiMers  and  llieologicul  .students, 
but  is  also  particularly  adapted  to  parents,  Sabhath  school  teachers,  and  the  great  hodu  of  the  religions 
public.    The  illustrations,  amounting  to  more  than  three  hundred,  Src  of  the  very  highest  order. 

A  condensed  view  of  the  various  branches  of  Biblical  Science  comprehended  in  the  ivork. 

1.  Biblical  Criticism,—  Embracing  the  History  of  the  Bible  Languages  ;  Canon  of  Scripture; 
Literary  History  and  Peculiarities  of  the  Sacred  Books  ;  Formation  and  History  of  Scripture  Texts. 

2.  History, —  Proper  Names  of  Persons ;  Biographical  Sketches  of  prominent  Characters;  Detailed 
Accounts  of  important  Events  recorded  in  Scripture  ;  Chronology  and  Genealogy  of  Scripture. 

3.  GiiOC.RAriiY,- Names  of  Places;  Description  of  Scenery ;  Boundaries  and  Mutual  Relations  of 
the  Countries  mentioned  in  Scripture,  so  far  as  necessary  to  illustrate  the  Sacred  Text. 

4.  Arch.eology,  —  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Jews  and  other  nations  mentioned  in  Scripture  ; 
their  Sacred  Institutions,  Military  Affairs,  Political  Arrangements,  Literary  and  Scientific  Pursuits. 

5.  Physical  Science,— Scripture  Cosmogony  and  Astronomy,  Zoology,  Mineralogy,  Botany, 
Meteorology. 

In  addition  to  numerous  flattering  notices  and  reviews,  personal  letters  from  more  than  fifty  of  the 
•most  distinsftdshed  Ministers  and  La>/i>irn  ofdiJTcrc/it  religious  denominations  in  the  country  have  been 
received,  highly  commending  this  work  as  admirably  adapted  to  ministers,  Sabbath  school  teachers, 
heads  of  families,  and  all  Bible  students. 

The  following  extract  of  a  letter  is  a  fair  specimen  of  individual  letters  received  from  each  of  the 
gentlemen  whose  names  are  given  below  :  — 

"  I  have  examined  it  with  special  and  unalloyed  satisfaction.  It  has  the  rare  merit  of  being  all  that 
it  professes  to  be,  and  very  few,  I  am  sure,  who  may  consult  it  will  deny  that,  in  richness  and  fulness 
of  detail,  it  surpasses  their  expectation.  Many  ministers  will  find  it  a  valuable  auxiliary ;  but  its 
chief  excellence  is,  that  it  furnishes  just  the  facilities  which  are  needed  by  the  thousands  in  families 
and  Sabbath  schools,  who  are  engaged  in  the  important  business  of  biblical  education.  It  is  in  itself  a 
library  of  reliable  information." 

W.  B.  Sprngne,  D.  D.,  Pastor  of  Second  Presbyterian  Church,  Albany,  N.  Y. 

J.  J.  Carruthers,  D.  D.,  Pastor  of  Second  Parish  Congregational  Church,  Portland,  IMe. 

Joel  Hawes,  D.  D.,  Pastor  of  First  Congregational  Church,  Hartford,  Ct. 

Daniel  Sharp,  D.  D.,  late  Pastor  of  Third  Baptift  Church,  Boston. 

N.  L.  Frothingham,  D.J).. late  Pastor  of  First  Congregational  Church,  (Unitarian,)  Boston. 

Ephraim  Peabody,  D.  D.,  Pastor  of  Stone  Chapel  Congregational  Church,  (Unitarian,)  Boston. 

A.  L.  Stone,  Pastor  of  Park  Street  Congregational  Church,  Boston. 

John  S.  Stone,  D.  D.,  Rector  of  Christ  Church,  (Episcopal,)  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

J.  B.  "Waterbury,  D.  D.,  Pastor  of  Bowdoin  Street  Church,  (Congregational,)  Boston. 

Baron  Stow,  D.  D.,  Pastor  of  Rowe  Street  Baptist  Church,  Boston. 

Thomas  H.  Skinner,  D.  D.,  Pastor  of  Carmine  Presbyterian  Church,  New  York. 

Samuel  W.  Worcester,  D.  D.,  Pastor  of  the  Tabernacle  Church,  (Congregational,)  Salem. 

Horace  Bushnell,  D.  D.,  Pastor  of  Third  Congregational  Church,  Hartford,  Ct. 

Right  Reverend  J.  M.  Wainwright,  D.  D.,  Trfnity  Church,  (Episcopal,)  New  York. 

Gardner  Spring,  D.  D.,  Pastor  of  the  Brick  Church  Chapel  Presbyterian  Church,  New  York. 

W.  T.  Dwight,  D.  D..  Pastor  of  Third  Congregational  Church,  Portland,  Me. 

E.  N.  Kirk,  Pastor  of  Mount  Vernon  Consregational  Church,  Boston. 

Prof.  George  Bush,  author  of  "  Notes  on  the  Scriptures,"  New  York. 

Howard  JVIalcom,  D.  D.,  author  of  "  Bible  Dictionary,"  and  Pres.  of  Lcwisbnrg  University. 

Henry  J.  Ripley,  D.  D.,  author  Of  "  Notes  on  the  Scriptures,"  and  Prof,  in  Newton  Theol.  Ins. 

N.  Porter,  Prof,  in  Yale  College,  New  Haven,  Ct. 

Jared  Sparks,  Edward  Everett,  Theodore  Frelinghuysen,  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  John  McLean, 

Simon  Greenleaf,  Thomas  S.  "Williams,  -  and  a  large  number  of  others  of  like  character  and 

standing  of  the  above,  whose  names  cannot  here  appear.  H 


HUGH    MILLER'S    WORKS. 

MY    FIRST    IMPRESSIONS 

OF   ENGLAND   AND   ITS   PEOPLE. 

By  Hugh  Miller,  author  of  "  Old  Red  Sandstone,"  "  Footprints  of  the 
Creator,"  etc.,  with  a  fine  likeness  of  the  author.    12rao,  cloth,  1,00. 

Let  not  the  careless  reader  imagine,  from  the  title  of  this  book,  that  it  is  a  common  book  of  travels, 
on  the  contrary,  it  is  a  very  remarkable  one,  both  in  design,  spirit,  and  execution.  Tne  facts  recorded, 
and  the  views  advanced  in  this  book,  are  so  fresh,  vivid,  and  natural,  that  we  cannot  but  commend  it 
ab  a  treasure,  both  of  information  and  entertainment.  It  will  greatly  enhance  the  author's  reputation 
in  this  country  as  it  already  has  m  England,  —  Willis's  Jloine  JouniaL 

This  is  a  noble  book,  worthy  of  the  author  of  the  Footprints  of  the  Creator  and  the  Old  Ked  Sand- 
stone, because  it  is  seasoned  with  the  same  power  of  vivid  description,  the  same  minuteness  of  obser- 
vation, and  soundness  of  criticism,  and  the  same  genial  piety.  We  liave  read  it  with  deep  interest, 
and  with  ardent  admiration  of  the  author's  temper  and  genius.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  lay  the  book 
down,  even  ,to  attend  to  more  pressing  matters.  It  is,  without  compliment  or  hyperbole,  a  most  de- 
lightful volume.  —  iV.  Y.  Commercial. 

It  abounds  with  graphic  sketches  of  scenery  and  character,  is  full  of  genius,  eloquence,  and  observa- 
tion, and  is  well  calculated  to  arrest  the  attention  of  the  thoughtful  and  inquiring.  —  I'hil.  Inquirer. 

This  is  a  most  amusing  and  instructive  book,  by  a  master  hand.  —  Democratic  Review. 

The  author  of  this  work  proved  himself,  in  the  Footprints  of  the  Creator,  one  of  the  most  original 
thinkers  and  powerful  writers  of  the  age.  In  the  volume  before  us  he  adds  new  laurels  to  his  reputa- 
tion. Whoever  wishes  to  understand  the  character  of  the  present  race  of  Englishmen,  as  contradistin- 
guished from  past  generations  ;  to  comprehend  the  workings  of  pohtical,  social,  and  religious  agitation 
in  the  minds,  not  of  the  nobility  or  gentry,  but  of  thej;ec|p/e,  will  discover  tliat,  in  this  volume,  he  has 
found  a  treasure.  —  Peterson's  Magazine. 

His  eyes  were  open  to  see,  and  his  ears  to  hear,  every  thing ;  and,  as  the  result  of  what  he  saw  and 
heard  in  "  merrie  "  England,  he  has  made  one  of  the  most  spirited  and  attractive  volumes  of  travels 
and  observations  that  we  have  met  with  these  many  days.  —  Traveller. 

It  is  with  the  feeling  with  which  one  grasps  the  hand  of  an  old  friend  that  we  greet  to  our  home  and 
heart  the  author  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  and  Footprints  of  the  Creator.  Hugh  Miller  is  one  of  tJio 
most  agreeable,  entertaining,  and  instructive  writers  of  the  age  ;  and,  having  been  so  delighted  with 
him  before,  we  open  the  First  Impre-sions,  and  enter  upon  its  perusal  with  i  ktcn  intellectual  appe- 
tite. We  know  of  no  work  in  England  so  full  of  adaptedness  to  the  ago  as  this.  It  opens  up  clearly  to 
view  the  condition  of  its  various  classes,  sheds  new  light  into  its  social,  moral,  and  religious  history, 
not  forgetting  its  geological  peculiarities,  and  draws  conclusions  of  great  value.  —  Albany  Spectator. 

We  commend  the  volume  to  our  readers  as  one  of  more  than  ordinary  value  and  interest,  from  the 
pen  of  a  writer  who  thinks  for  himself,  and  looks  at  mankind  and  at  nature  through  his  own  spec- 
tacles. —  Transcript. 

The  author,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  of  the  age,  arranged  for  this  journey  into  England, 
expecting  to  "lodge  in  humble  cottages,  and  wear  a  humble  dress,  and  see  what  was  to  be  seen  by 
humble  men  only,—  society  without  its  mask."  Such  an  observer  might  be  expected  to  bring  to  view 
a  thousand  things  unknown,  or  partially  known  before ;  and  abundantly  does  he  fulfil  this  expecta- 
tion.   It  is  one  of  the  most  absorbing  books  of  the  time.  —  Portland  Ch.  Mirror. 

NEW   WORK. 
MY  SCHOOLS  AND   SCHOOLMASTERS; 

OE    THE    STORY    OF    MY    EDUCATION. 

By   Hugh  Miller   author  of  "  Footprints  of  the  Creator,"  "  Old  Red 
Sandstone,"  "  First  Impressions  of  England."  etCv    12ino,  cloth 

This  is  a  personal  narrative  of  a  deeply  Interesting  and  instructive  character,  concerning  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  men  of  the  age.  No  one  who  purchases  this  book  will  have  occasion  to  regret  it,  our 
word  for  it  I  U 


A    PILGRIMAGE     TO    EGYPT; 

EMBRACING  A  DIARY  OF  EXPLORATIONS  ON  THE  NILE, 

WITH  OBSERVATIONS,  illustrative  of  the  Manners,  Customs,  and 
Institutions  of  the  People,  and  of  the  present  condition  of  the  Antiquities  and  Ruins.  By 
J.  V.  C.  Smith,  M.  D.,  Editor  of  the  Boston  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal.  With  nu- 
merous elegant  Engravings.    Third  edition.    1,25. 

There  is  a  lifelike  interest  in  the  narratives  and  descriptions  of  Dr.  Smith's  pen,  which  takes  you 
directly  along  witli  the  traveller,  so  tiiat  when  he  closes  a  chapter  you  feel  that  you  have  reached 
an  inn,  where  you  will  rest  for  a  while ;  and  then,  with  a  refreshed  mind,  you  will  be  ready  to  move 
on  again,  in  ajourncy  full  of  fresh  and  instructive  incidents  and  explorations.  —  Ch.  Witness. 

Every  page  of  the  volume  is  entertaining  and  instructive,  and  even  those  who  are  well  read  in 
Egyi)tian  manners,  customs,  and  scenery,  cannot  fail  to  find  something  new  and  novel  upon  those 
somewhat  hackneyed  topics.  —  Mercantile  Journal, 

One  of  the  most  egreeable  books  of  travel  which  have  been  published  for  a  long  time.  —  Daily  Adv. 

It  is  readable,  attractive,  and  interesting,  because  familiar  and  companionable.  You  seem  to  be 
travelling  with  him,  and  seeing  the  things  which  he  sees.  —  iiwnAer  Hill  Aurora. 

The  author  is  a  keen  observer,  and  describes  what  he  observes  with  a  graphic  pen.  The  volume 
abounds  in  vivid  descriptions  of  the  manners,  customs,  and  institutions  of  the  people  visited,  tha 
present  condition  of  the  ancient  ruins,  accompanied  by  a  large  number  of  illustrations.  —  Courier. 

"We  see  what  Egypt  was ;  we  see  what  Egypt  is ;  and  with  prophetic  endowment  we  see  what  it  is 
yet  to  be.  It  is  a  charming  book,  not  written  for  antiquarians  and  the  learned,  but  for  the  million,  and 
by  the  million  it  will  be  read.  —  Congregationalist. 

The  reader  may  be  sure  of  entertainment  in  such  a  land,  under  the  guidance  of  such  an  observer  as 
Dr.  Smith,  and  will  be  surprised,  when  he  has  accompanied  him  through  the  tour,  at  the  vivid  im- 
pression which  he  retains  of  persons, and  places,  and  incidents.  The  illustrations  are  capitally  drawn, 
and  add  greatly  to  the  value  of  the  book,  which  is  a  handsome  volume  in  every  respect,  as  are  all 
the  works  which  issue  from  the  house  of  Gould  and  Lincoln.  —  Salem  Gazette.  i 

This  is  really  one  of  the  most  entertaining  books  upon  Egypt  that  we  have  met  with.  It  is  an  easy 
and  simple  narration  of  all  sorts  of  strange  matters  and  things,  as  they  came  under  the  eye  of  an  at- 
tentive and  intelligent  observer.  —  Albany  Argta. 

Mr.  Smith  is  one  of  the  sprightliest  authors  in  America,  and  this  work  is  worthy  of  his  pen.  Ho  is 
particularly  happy  in  presenting  the  comical  and  grotesque  side  of  objects.—  Commonwealth. 

The  sketches  of  people  and  manners  are  marvellously  lifelike,  and  if  the  book  is  not  a  little  gossipy, 
it  is  not  by  any  means  wanting  in  substantial  information  and  patient  research.  —  Ch.  Inquirer. 

One  of  the  most  complete  and  perfect  books  of  the  kind  ever  published,  introducing  entire  new 
places  and  scenes,  that  have  been  overlooked  by  other  writers.  The  style  is  admirable  and  attractive, 
and  abundantly  interesting  to  insure  it  a  general  circulation.  —  2>iadem. 

Eeadcr,  take  this  book  and  go  with  him  ;  it  is  like  making  the  voyage  yourself.  Dr.  Smith  writes  in 
a  very  pleasing  style.  No  one  will  fall  to  sleep  over  the  book.  'We  admire  the  man's  wit;  it  breaks 
out  occasionally  like  flashes  of  lightning  on  a  dark  sky,  and  makes  every  thing  look  pleasantly.  Of 
all  the  books  we  have  read  on  Egypt,  we  prefer  this.  It  goes  ahead  of  Stephens's.  Reader,  obtain  a 
copy  for  yourself.  —  Trumpet. 

This  volume  is  neither  a  re- hash  of  guide  books,  nor  a  condensed  mensuration  of  heights  and  dis- 
tances from  works  on  Egyptian  antiquities.  It  contains  the  daily  observations  of  a  most  intelligent 
traveller,  whose  descriptions  bring  to  the  reader's  eye  the  scenes  he  witnessed.  We  have  read  many 
books  on  Egypt,  some  of  them  full  of  science  and  learning,  and  some  of  wit  and  frolic,  but  none  which 
furnished  so  clear  an  idea  of  Egypt  us  it  is,  —  of  its  ruins  as  they  now  are,  and  of  its  people  as  they 
now  live  and  move.  The  style,  always  dignified,  is  not  unfrequently  playful,  and  the  reader  is  borne 
along  from  page  to  page,  with  the  feeling  that  he  is  in  good  company.  -  Watchman  and  licjlecior. 

Its  geological  remarks  upon  the  Nile  and  its  valley,  its  information  upon  agriculture  and  tlie  me- 
chanic arts,  amusements,  education,  domestic  life  and  economy,  and  especially  upon  the  diseases  of 
the  country,  are  new  and  important  —  Congregationalist. 

SCRIPTURE  NATURAL  HISTORY;  containing  a  descriptive  account 
of  Cluadrupeds,  Birds,  Fishes,  Insects,  Reptiles,  Serpents,  Plants,  Trees,  Minerals,  Gems, 
and  Precious  Stones,  mentioned  in  the  Bible.  By  WlLL-lAM  Carpenter,  London; 
with  Improvements,  by  Rev.  Gorham  D.  Abbott.  Illustrated  by  numerous  Engrav- 
ings.   Also,  Sketches  of  Palestine.    12mo,  cloth,  1,00.  T 


WORKS   OF  JOHN   HARRIS,  D.D. 

THE  GREAT  COMMISSION;  Or,  the  Christian  Church  constituted 
and  charged  to  convey  the  Gospel  to  the  World.  With  an  Introductory  Essay,  by 
William  R.  Williams,  D.  D.    Seventh  thousand.    12mo,  cloth,  1,00, 

Of  the  several  productions  of  Dr.  Harris,—  all  of  them  of  great  value,  — this  is  destined  to  exprt  the 
most  powerful  influence  in  forming  the  religious  and  missionary  character  of  the  coming  geuenitiong. 
But  the  vast  fund  of  argument  and  instruction  will  excite  the  admiration  and  inspire  the  gratitude  of 
thousands  in  our  own  land  as  well  as  in  Europe.  Every  clergyman  and  pious  and  reflecting  layman 
ought  to  possess  the  volume,  and  make  it  familiar  by  repeated  perusal,  —  Puritan  Eecordcr. 

His  plan  is  original  and  comprehensive.  In  filling  it  up,  the  author  has  interwoven  facts  with  rich 
and  glowing  illustrations,  and  with  trains  of  thought  that  arc  sometimes  almost  resistless  in  tlieir  ap- 
peals to  the  conscience.  The  work  is  not  more  distinguished  for  its  arguments  and  its  genius  than  for 
the  spirit  of  deep  aud  fervent  piety  that  pervades  it.  —  Daij-Spring. 

This  work  comes  forth  in  circumstances  which  give  and  promise  extraordinary  interest  and  value. 
Its  general  circulation  will  do  much  good.  —  N.  Y.  Evangelist. 

To  recommend  this  work  to  the  friends  of  all  denominations  would  be  but  faint  praise  i  the  author 
deserves,  and  will  undoubtedly  receive,  the  credit  of  having  applied  a  new  lever  to  that  great  moral 
machine  which,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  is  destined  to  evangelize  the  world.  —  Ch.  Secretary. 

"  Have  you  read  the  Great  Commission,  by  Harris  ?  "  I  answer  promptly,  iVo.  I  have  often  at- 
tempted it,  but  have  as  often  failed.  Before  I  can  go  through  with  a  single  page,  the  book  is  laid 
down,  and  my  mind  is  lost  in  thought ;  and  yet  so  profitably  and  pleasantly  lost,  that  one  almost 
•wishes  to  continue  so.  /  have  tuoughx  it  nearly  through!  The  book  is  made  up  o/ thought,  and 
made /or  thought,  and  consequent  action.  —  Rev.  A.  Williams. 

THE  GREAT  TEACHER ;  Or,  Characteristics  of  our  Lord's  Ministry. 
With  an  Introductory  Essay,  by  Heman  Humphrey,  D.  D.,  late  President  of  Amherst 
College,    Twelfth  thousand.     12mo,  cloth,  85  cts. 

Its  style  is,  like  the  country  which  gave  it  Ijirth,  beautiful,  varied,  finished,  and  everywhere  delight- 
ful. But  the  style  of  this  work  is  its  smallest  excellence.  It  will  be  read ;  it  ought  to  be  read.  It  will 
find  its  way  to  many  parlors,  and  add  to  the  comforts  of  many  a  happy  fireside.  The  writer  pours 
forth  a  clear  and  beautiful  light,  like  that  of  the  evening  light-house,  when  it  sheds  its  rays  upon  the 
Bleeping  waters,  and  covers  them  with  a  surface  of  gold.  We  can  have  no  sympathy  with  a  heart 
■which  yields  not  to  impressions  delicate  and  holy,  which  the  perusal  of  this  work  will  naturally 
make.  —  De.  Todd,  Hampshire  Gazette. 

He  writes  like  one  who  has  long  been  accustomed  to  "  sit  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,"  and  has  eminently 
profited  under  his  teaching.  I  do  not  wonder  at  the  avidity  which  is  hastening  its  wide  circulation  in 
England ;  nor  at  the  high  terms  in  which  it  is  recommended  by  so  many  of  the  best  judges.  I  am  sure 
that  it  deserves  an  equally  rapid  and  wide  circulation  here.  —  Db.  Humpheey's  Introduction. 

To  praise  the  work  itself  would  be  a  work  of  supererogation.  AH  Christians  know  it;  all  read  and 
admire  it.  Harris  is,  to  our  view,  incomparably  the  greatest  religious  writer  now  living  —  more  par- 
ticularly of  practical  works.  His  pages  are  a  storehouse  of  "  weighty  and  well-digested  thoughts,  im- 
bued with  deep  Christian  feeling,  and  clothed  in  perspicuous  and  polished  language."  —  Weekly  Rev. 

MISCELLANIES  ;  Consisting  Principally  of  Sermons  and  Essays.  With 
an  Introductory  Essay  and  Notes,  by  Joseph  Belcher,  D.  D,    J2mo,  clolh,  75  cts. 

These  essays  are  among  the  finest  in  the  language ;  and  the  warmth  and  energy  of  religious  fed* 
ing  manifested  will  render  them  the  treasure  of  the  closet  and  the  Christian  fireside.  —  Bangor  Merc. 

Dr.  Hareis  is  one  of  the  best  •writers  of  the  age,  and  this  volume  will  not  in  the  least  detract  1 
his  well-merited  reputation.  —  American  Pulpit. 

The  contents  of  this  volume  will  afford  the  raader  an  intellectual  and  spiritual  banquet  of  the  hlg 
est  order.  —  Philadelphia  Ch.  Obsert<er. 

ZEBULON ;  Or  the  Moral  Claims  of  Seamen  stated  and  enforced.    Edite 
by  Rev.  W.  M.  Rogers  and  Daniel  M.  Lord.    18mo,  cloth,  25  cts. 

C3-  A  well-written  and  spirit-stirring  appeal  to  Christians  in  behalf  of  that  numerous,  useful,  i 
erous-hearted,  though  long-neglected  class,  seamen.  Dd 


THE    PREACHER  AND   THE   KING; 

OR,  BOURDALOUE  IN  THE  COURT  OF  LOUIS  XIV. 

Being  an  Account  of  that  distinguished  Era.  Translated  from  the  Erench 
of  L.  BuNGENER.  Paris,  fourteenth  edition.  With  an  Introduction,  by  the  Rev. 
George  Potts,  D.  D.,  New  York.    12rao,  cloth,  1,25. 

It  combines  substantial  history  toith  the  highest  charm  of  romance  ;  the  most  rigid  philosophical  crit- 
icism with  a  thorough  analysis  of  human  character  and  faithful  representation  of  the  spirit  and  man- 
ners of  the  age  to  which  it  relates.  We  regard  the  book  as  a  valuable  contribution  io  the  cause  not 
merely  of  general  literature,  but  especially  of  pulpit  eloquence.  Its  attractions  are  so  various  that 
it  can  hardly  fail  to  find  readers  of  almost  every  description.  —  Puritan  Recorder. 

A  very  delightful  book.  It  is  full  of  interest,  and  equally  replete  with  sound  thought  and  profitable 
Bcutiment.  —  M.  Y.  Commercial. 

It  is  a  volume  at  once  curious,  instructive,  and  fascinating.  The  interviews  of  Bourdaloue,  and 
Claude,  and  those  of  Bossuet,  Fenelon,  and  others,  are  remarkably  attractive,  and  of  finished  taste. 
Other  high  personages  of  France  are  brought  in  to  figure  in  the  narrative,  while  rhetorical  rules  are 
exemplified  in  a  manner  altogether  new.  Its  extensive  sale  in  France  is  evidence  enough  of  its  ex- 
traordinary merit  and  its  peculiarly  attractive  qualities.  —  Ch.  Advocate. 

It  is  full  of  life  and  animation,  and  conveys  a  graphic  idea  of  the  state  of  morals  and  religion  in  the 
Augustan  age  of  French  Uterature.  —  N.  Y.  Recorder. 

This  book  will  attract  by  its  novelty,  and  prove  particularly  engaging  to  those  interested  in  the  pul- 
pit eloquence  of  an  age  characterized  by  the  flagrant  wickedness  of  Louis  XIV".  The  author  has  ex- 
hibited singular  skill  in  weaving  into  his  narrative  sketches  of  the  remarkable  men  who  flourished  at 
that  period,  with  original  and  striking  remarks  on  the  subject  of  preaching.  —  Presbyterian. 

Its  historical  and  biographical  portions  are  valuable ;  its  comments  excellent,  and  its  eifect  pure  and 
benignant.    A  work  which  we  recommend  to  all,  as  possessing  rare  interest.  —  Buffalo  Mom.  Exp. 

A  book  of  rare  interest,  not  only  for  the  singular  ability  with  which  it  is  written,  but  for  the  graphic 
account  which  it  gives  of  the  state  of  pulpit  eloquence  during  the  celebrated  era  of  which  it  treats. 
It  is  perhaps  the  best  biography  extant  of  the  distinguished  and  eloquent  preacher,  who  above  all  oth- 
ers most  pleased  the  kmg ;  while  it  also  turnishes  many  interesting  particulars  in  the  lives  of  his  pro- 
fessional contemporaries.    We  content  ourself  with  warmly  commendmg  it.  —  Savannah  Journal. 

The  author  is  a  minister  of  the  Reformed  Church,  In  the  forms  of  narrative  and  conversations,  he 
portrays  the  features  and  character  of  that  remarkable  age,  and  illustrates  the  claims  and  duties  of  the 
sacred  office,  and  the  important  ends  to  be  secured  by  the  eloquence  of  the  pulpit.  —  Phil.  Ch.  Obs. 

A  book  which  unfolds  to  us  the  private  conversation,  the  interior  life  and  habits  of  study  of  such 
men  as  Claude,  Bossuet,  Bourdaloue,  Massillon,  and  Bridaine,  cannot  but  be  a  precious  gift  to  the 
American  church  and  ministers.  It  is  a  book  full  of  historical  facts  of  great  value,  sparkling  with  gems 
of  tnought,  polished  scholarship,  and  genuine  piety.  —  Cin.  Ch.  Advocate. 

This  volume  presents  a  phase  of  French  life  with  which  we  have  never  met  in  any  other  work.  The 
author  is  a  minister  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  Paris,  where  his  work  has  been  received  with  unex- 
ampled popularity,  having  already  gone  through  fourteen  editions.  The  writer  has  studied  not  only 
the  divinity  and  general  literature  of  the  age  of  Louis  XIV.,  but  also  the  memories  of  that  period,  until 
he  is  able  to  reproduce  a  life-like  picture  of  society  at  the  Court  of  the  Grand  Monarch.  —  Alb.  Trans. 

A  work  which  we  recommend  to  all,  as  possessing  rare  interest.  —  Buffalo  Ev.  Express. 

In  form  it  is  descriptive  and  dramatic,  presenting  the  reader  with  animated  conversations  between 
some  of  the  most  famous  preachers  and  philosophers  of  the  Augustan  age  of  France.  The  work  will 
be  read  with  interest  by  all  intelligent  men ;  but  it  will  be  of  especial  service  to  the  ministry,  who  can- 
not aflord  to  be  ignorant  of  the  facts  and  suggestions  of  this  instructive  volume.  —  N.  Y.  Ch.  Intel. 

The  work  is  very  fascinating,  and  the  lesson  under  its  spangled  robe  is  of  the  gravest  moment  to 
every  pulpit  and  every  age.  —  Ch.  Intelligencer. 

THE  PRIEST  AND  THE  HUGUENOT ;  or  Persecution  in  the  Age 
of  Loui«  XV.  Part  I.,  A  Sermon  at  Court ;  Part  II.,  A  Sermon  in  the  City  ;  Part  III., 
A  Sermon  in  the  Desert  Transhited  from  the  French  of  L.  Bungener,  author  of 
"  The  Preacher  and  the  King."    2  vols.  12mo,  cloth.    ^fCT  "^  "^j/j  Work. 

cs-  This  is  truly  a  masterly  production,  full  of  interest,  and  may  be  set  down  as  one  of  the  greatest 
Protestant  works  of  the  age.  Ff 


UNIVERSITY    SERMONS 


SERMONS  Delivered  in  the  Chapel  of  Brown  University.    By  the  Eet. 
Francis  Wayland,  D.  D.    Third  thousand.     12rao,  cloth,  1,00. 

tt3-  Dr.  Wayland  has  here  discussed  most  of  the  prominent  doctrines  of  the  Bible  in  his  usual 
clear  and  masterly  style,  viz. :  Theoretical  Atheism  ;  Practical  Atheism ;  JMoral  Character  of  Man  ; 
Love  to  God  ;  Fall  of  Man  ;  Justification  by  Works  impossible  ;  Preparation  for  the  Advent  of  the 
Messiah;  Work  of  the  Messiah ;  Justification  by  Faith  ;  The  Fall  of  Peter;  The  Church  of  Christ; 
The  Unity  of  the  Church ;  The  Duty  of  Obedience  to  the  Civil  Slagistrate ;  also,  the  Recent  Revolu- 
tions in  Europe. 

The  discourses  contained  in  this  handsome  volume  are  characterized  by  all  that  richness  of  thought 
and  elegance  of  language  for  which  their  talented  author  is  celebrated.  The  volume  is  worthy  of  the 
pen  of  the  distinguished  divine  from  whom  it  emanates.  —  Dr.  Baikd's  Christian  Union. 

Few  sermons  contain  so  much  carefully  arranged  thought  as  these.  The  thorough  logician  is  ap- 
parent throughout  the  volume,  and  there  is  a  classic  purity  in  the  diction,  unsurpassed  by  any  writer, 
and  equalled  by  few.  —  N.  Y.  Commercial. 

The  author  has  long  been  before  the  public  as  one  of  our  most  popular  writers  in  various  depart- 
ments of  science  and  morals.    His  style  is  easy  and  fluent,  and  rich  in  illustration.  —  Evan.  Review. 

No  thinking  man  can  open  to  any  portion  of  it  without  finding  his  attention  strongly  arrested,  and 
feeling  inclined  to  yield  liis  assent  to  those  self-evincing  statements  which  appear  on  every  page.  As 
a  writer,  Dr,  Way  land  is  distinguished  by  simplicity,  strength,  and  comprehensiveness.  He  uddrcBses 
himself  directly  to  the  intellect  more  than  to  the  imagination,  to  the  conscience  more  than  to  the  pas- 
sions. —  Watchman  and  Jiejie'ctor. 

Just  issued,  a  noble  volume  of  noble  sermons,  from  the  distinguished  President  of  Brown  Univer- 
sity. These  discourses  are  fine  specimens  of  his  discriminating  power  of  tliought,  and  purity  and 
vigor  of  style.  —  Zion's  Herald. 

De.  Wayland's  name  and  fame  will  cause  any  thing  from  his  pen  to  be  eagerly  sought  for ;  and 
those  who  take  up  this  volume  with  the  high  expectations  induced  by  his  previous  works,  will  not  be 
disappointed.  The  discourses  are  rich  in  evangelical  truth,  profound  thought,  and  beautiful  diction; 
worthy  at  once  of  the  theologian,  tlie  philosopher,  and  the  rhetorician.  —  Albany  Argus, 

This  volume  adds  to  Dr.  Wayland's  fame  as  a  writer.  This  is  commendation  enough  to  bestow 
upon  any  book,  —  Puritan  Recorder. 

Dr.  Wayi.and  is  one  of  the  prominent  Christian  philosophers  and  literary  men  of  our  country. 
His  style  is  elegant  and  polished,  and  his  views  evangelical.  —  Watchman,  Cincinnati. 

His  style  is  peculiarly  adapted  to  arrest  the  attention,  and  his  familiar  illustrations  serve  to  make 
plain  the  most  abstruse  principles,  as  well  as  to  enstamp  them  upon  one's  memory.  It  is,  in  fact, 
scarcely  possible  to  forget  a  discourse  which  we  read  from  Wayland,  and  we  have  ever  found  his 
■works  to  be  highly  suggestive.    We  think  no  minister's  library  complete  without  it.  —  Dover  Star. 

We  must  call  the  attention  of  our  readers  again  to  this  attractive  volume  of  sermons.  They  come 
from  one  who  has  attained  a  national  reputation,  and  embody  the  views  matured  by  the  careful  study 
of  many  years  upon  the  most  important  topics  in  theology.  —  RhitT  Ch.  Chronicle. 

It  would  be  spending  time  to  little  purpose  to  attempt  a  eulogy  on  a  work  emanating  from  such  a 
source.  —  iV.  Y.  Baptist  Register. 

THE  PERSON  AND  WORK  OF  CHRIST.    By  Ernest  Sartorius, 

D.  D.,  General  Superintendent  and  Consistorial  Director  at  Konigsberg,  Prussia.     Trans- 
lated from  the  German,  by  the  Rev.  Oakman  S.  Stearns,  A.  M.     18rao,  cloth,  42  cts. 

A  work  of  much  ability,  and  presenting  the  argument  in  a  style  that  will  be  new  to  most  American 
readers.    It  will  deservedly  attract  attention.  —  N.  Y.  Observer. 

Dn.  Saktorius  is  one  of  the  most  eminent  and  evangelical  theologians  in  Germany.  The  work 
will  be  found,  both  from  the  important  subjects  discussed  and  the  earnestness,  beauty,  and  vivacity  of 
its  style,  to  possess  the  qualities  which  recommend  it  to  the  Christian  public.  —  Mich.  Ch.  Herald, 

A  little  volume  on  a  great  subject,  and  evidently  the  production  of  a  great  mind.  The  style  and 
train  of  thought  prove  this.—  SoutJieni  Literary  Gazette. 

Whether  we  consider  the  importance  of  the  subjects  discussed,  or  the  perspicuous  exhibition  of  truth 
in  the  volume  before  ns,  the  chaste  and  elegant  style  used,  or  the  devout  spirit  of  the  author,  we  can- 
not but  desire  that  the  work  may  meet  with  an  extensive  circulation.  —  Christian  Index. 


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